BUNTER SPRING WINERY — CURRENT RELEASES
2022 BUNTER SPRING CHARDONNAY COOMBSVILLE NAPA VALLEY 12.93% alcohol, 34 cases, $40/bottle. We just gotta have Chard. As much as we love many white wines, no other grape has the texture and satisfying rich mouthfeel of Chardonnay. For us, with roast chicken, and especially Dungeness crab, nothing else will do. This is not your average Napa Chard. It’s a little hippy-dippy: bruised green apple, walnut, lick-a-battery, mmm nice. Modest alcohol, moderate totally natural acidity, and an unintended but luscious touch of unfermented sugar create a gentle but textured balance that makes this endlessly quaffable, with or without food. Ingredients: grapes, water, sulfite. Filtered, not fined. At bottling: total SO2 77 ppm, residual sugar 2.8 g/l (not quite dry). Limit two bottles.
2022 BUNTER SPRING WHITE WINE SANTA CLARA COUNTY 12.58% alc., 35 cases $20 This was made with 100% sauvignon blanc grapes. To us, it doesn’t smell or taste much like sauvignon blanc, probably because of the vineyard location and management. It is reminiscent of light dry whites from the warmer regions around the Mediterranean Sea: pleasant, s’more-ish, smacking more of dried grass and herbs than fruit, good for washing down fish, olives, and strong salty cheese. Total sulfite 60 ppm, residual sugar 0.1 g/l (bone dry).
2022 BUNTER SPRING MACERATED WHITE SANTA CLARA COUNTY 11.8% alc., 12 cases, $20 The same grapes as went into the wine above, only fermented on the skins for ten days before pressing. The maceration increased aromatic intensity considerably, but the result is not more like sauvignon blanc, just more like perfumed herbs. The mouthfeel and flavor are remarkable: tart, mineral, almost salty. A very unusual wine. Total sulfite 60 ppm, residual sugar 0.4 g/l (dry).
2020 BUNTER SPRING ROSÉ OF SYRAH NAPA VALLEY ESTATE 12.41% alc., 33 cases, $30 Fires raged across Napa County, and most winegrowing regions in California, all through the summer and fall of 2020. After the Hennessey fire late in July, we decided to pick early and make rosé. Boy were we smart. Our neighbors and everyone in Napa who waited to ripen their grapes for red wine were wiped out or made smoke-tainted wine thanks to the Glass Fire in late September. This is a relatively deeply colored, medium bodied wine, with medium acidity, low alcohol and full raspberry and herb flavor. A deep pink wine for food, rather than a pale poolside pounder. Ingredients: grapes, water, yeast, tartaric acid. Not fined, not filtered. At bottling: 64 ppm total sulfite, <0.1 g/L residual sugar (absolutely dry).
2021 PINOT NOIR MONTEREY COUNTY 13.57% alc., 53 cases, $40. A blend of mostly Santa Lucia Highlands Pommard and Cl. 667 with some Cl. 113 from lower Carmel Valley, this is a super friendly very flavorful and easy drinking wine, with tons of fruit and spicy French oak character. Total sulfite 77 ppm, residual sugar 0.3 g/l (dry).
SPRING 2018 CABERNET SAUVIGNON, CALISTOGA, NAPA VALLEY, 13.6% alcohol, 24 cases, $60/bottle. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, organically grown on the site of the historic vineyard of Samuel Brannan, the founder of Calistoga. Calistoga is the warmest AVA in Napa Valley, and you can taste it here. This is a bold, ripe, spicy wine, with plenty of tannin, aged 34 months in new American oak, very contemporary in style, just what people love about Napa Cab. Although it’s drinkable now, this wine will be much better in five or ten years, and might well last many years. The grapes from this vineyard are expensive, and go into several wines selling for hundreds of dollars. Ingredients: organic grapes, water, yeast, sulfite. Not fined, reverse osmosis filtered. At bottling: total sulfites 46 ppm, residual sugar 0.2 g/l (totally dry).
2018 HIPPIE SYRAH, NAPA VALLEY. 100% Syrah. 14.12% alcohol, 68 cases, $30. Made with organic grapes. Here, the ‘wild’ yeast behaved themselves during a peaceful anti-establishment fermentation. We added a little sulfite to the one third that underwent two weeks of carbonic maceration. For a “Hippie” wine, it’s pretty square, with spicy American oak character and Napa depth of flavor, but it does have a little dank streak any Deadhead could love. Ingredients: Organic grapes, water, sulfite. Not filtered, not fined. At bottling: total sulfite 37 ppm, residual sugar <0.1 g/l (dry).
2017 BÜNTER “NATUR” SYRAH, COOMBSVILLE, NAPA VALLEY. 100% Syrah, Estate bottled. 13.27% alcohol, 50 cases, $30. Organic grapes, 50% carbonic maceration. Subtle, delicious, complex, with superb balance and a structure that complements many foods, and never overwhelms the palate. Definitely different from Cab, but familiar enough that any red wine lover could embrace it. Ingredients: Organic grapes, water, sulfite. Not fined, not filtered. At bottling: total SO2 39 ppm, residual sugar <0.1 g/l (bone dry).
Winemaker’s Note
About sulfites: Most wines, especially young wines, naturally contain small amounts of sulfite, on the order of ten or so parts per million (ppm), as do the cells in your own body, as well as does a chicken egg. Because higher levels of sulfite are an effective preservative, additional sulfite is added to many foods, and to most wines. Exactly how much more varies widely. Most commercially available U.S. wines probably have around 100 to 150 parts per million measured as total sulfur dioxide, white wines generally having more added to them than reds. In the U.S. the legal limit is 350 ppm. Wines labeled “Certified Organic” are legally limited to no more than 10 ppm. Wines labeled “Made with Organic Grapes” are limited to 100 ppm. “Natural” wines are not regulated, other than if they contain more than 10 ppm the label must say “Contains Sulfites”, but in all these cases, the actual level need not be disclosed. The consensus (IF such a thing exists) among the Natural Wine crowd is the less the better. We get around the confusing labeling laws and bickering by stating what exactly the level of sulfite is in each of our wines.
Many of our wines are unfiltered. None of our wines are treated, as most commercial wines are, to prevent them from possibly precipitating cream of tartar if the wine is chilled below a certain temperature. Cream of tartar, used in baking, also called potassium bitartrate, is a crystalline salt of the tartaric acid that is naturally present in grapes. If you do chill our wine, and see white crystals, flakes, chunky or fine powder, they are harmless.
For our red wines, we recommend decanting. Decanting will aerate and “open” most young red wines, improving aroma and flavor. For older wines it allows you to separate the sediment from the wine, if you are careful. If not decanted, please handle the bottle gently and pour carefully, especially as you near the end of the bottle. In the case of wines older than about ten years, a double prong or AhSo, or air or gas injection needle style opener may be better than a screw with fragile, crumbly corks. Enjoy!