BUNTER SPRING WINERY — CURRENT RELEASES
2021 SPRING CHARDONNAY COOMBSVILLE NAPA VALLEY 13.34% alcohol, 50 cases, $30/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! We don’t like a lot of oak, so even though this is barrel fermented, it’s about the fruit, not the oak. 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. Coarsely filtered, not fined. At bottling: total SO2 48 ppm, residual sugar 0.8 g/l (not quite totally dry).
2019 SPRING “ORANGE WINE” SAUVIGNON BLANC SANTA CRUZ 12.08% alc., 48 cases, $15 Orange wine is a potentially misleading name for wine made from white grapes fermented on their skins in the manner of red wine. Depending on the variety, and how long the maceration, the color can range from pale straw to deep pink, almost red. This one’s relatively light as it was only on the skins for five days. It has interesting aroma and flavors reminiscent of stone fruit and herbs, dried grass, savory spice. Slightly tannic, with more texture than white wine. Good with many foods, especially Asian, and shrimp. Ingredients: grapes, yeast, 40 ppm total sulfite. Dry.
2020 BUNTER SPRING ROSÉ OF SYRAH NAPA VALLEY ESTATE 12.41% alc., 33 cases, $20 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).
2018 SPRING PINOT NOIR HILLTOP RANCH CARMEL VALLEY 13.68% alcohol, 107 cases, $30. In one of the many examples of AVA nonsense, this vineyard, a mile outside Carmel Valley Village, isn’t in the Carmel Valley AVA, although vineyards ten miles away, in neighboring Cachagua valley, are. So legally it’s not Carmel Valley wine, it’s Monterey wine. Whatever. It is VERY easy-drinking, medium bodied, perfectly balanced, with lots of varietal fruit and a distinctive spicy character from custom-coopered French oak barrels. Ingredients: grapes, water, yeast , 60 ppm total sulfite. Not fined, reverse osmosis filtered. At bottling: total SO2 60 ppm, residual sugar 0.5g/L (dry).
SPRING 2018 CABERNET SAUVIGNON, CALISTOGA, NAPA VALLEY, 13.6% alcohol, 24 cases, $60/bottle. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, organically grown. Our friend Ed Lantz grew this 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 SPRING CABERNET SAUVIGNON HIGHLAND VINEYARD MONTEREY 13.96% alcohol, 50 cases, $30. Classic California Cab. Delicious varietal flavor, full body, good tannin. Ingredients: grapes, water, yeast , tartaric acid, sulfur dioxide. Not fined, filtered. At bottling: total SO2 66 ppm, residual sugar 0.4 g/L (dry).
2018 SPRING “GARAGITAGE” HIGHLAND VINEYARD MONTEREY 76% Cab Franc, 16% Petit Verdot,8% Cab Sauv 14.64% alcohol, 76 cases, $24. Big ripe fruity red wine, lotsa alcohol, plenty tannin, enough oak. Screams “CALIFORNIA!” Gotta love it. Why pay more? Ingredients: grapes, water, yeast , tartaric acid, sulfur dioxide. Not fined, reverse osmosis filtered. At bottling: total SO2 66 ppm, residual sugar 0.4 g/L (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 some spicy American oak character any Republican could love. Ingredients: Organic grapes, water, sulfite. Not filtered, not fined. At bottling: total sulfite 37 ppm, residual sugar <0.1 g/l (dry).
SPRING 2018 “PIZZA WINE” RED BLEND, HIGHLAND VINEYARD, MONTEREY 65% Zinfandel, 35% Syrah. 14.96% alcohol, 75 cases, $24/bottle. “Pizza Wine” You can drink this with burgers, too, or with nothing at all, but it’s really good with pizza and spicy pasta. Aged sixteen months in American oak barrels. Ingredients: grapes, water, yeast, tartaric acid, sulfite. Not filtered, not fined. At bottling: total sulfite 52 ppm, residual sugar 0.3 g/l (dry).
SPRING 2017 CABERNET SAUVIGNON, CARMEL VALLEY Organic grapes 13.38% alcohol, 24 cases, $45/bottle. This wine is from a historic organic vineyard in the hills high above the Carmel River. The AVA gives a distinct and recognizable character to its fruit, something midway between Napa and Paso Robles- which is exactly where it is! Twenty months in french and American oak barrels, 50% new. Ingredients: Organic grapes, water, yeast, sulfite. Not fined or fitered. At bottling: total sulfite 60 ppm, residual sugar 0.2 g/l (very dry).
2017 BÜNTER “NATUR” SYRAH, COOMBSVILLE, NAPA VALLEY. 100% Syrah, Estate bottled. 13.27% alcohol, 50 cases, $30. Organic grapes, 50% carbonic maceration. Everybody knows… California syrah is a big dumb oaf of a very dark tannic nondescript red wine, alcoholic, overripe and overoaked. “Good for barbeque!” OR it’s a trendy seaside syrah with 11% alcohol that tastes like pickled green olives and herbs, a weak winegrape martini. This wine takes the middle path. Subtle but complex, with superb balance and a structure that complements many foods, and never overwhelms the palate. Definitely different. Ingredients: Organic grapes, water, sulfite. Not fined, not filtered. At bottling: total SO2 39 ppm, residual sugar <0.1 g/l (bone dry).
2012 SPRING RED WINE NAPA VALLEY 86% Cabernet Franc, 14% Petit Verdot. 13.80% Alc., 37 cases, $90 . This wine is just now entering its ideally drinkable phase. It is the best red wine on the list, for those of you who want ripe fruit, tannin, and concentration, in an elegant but recognizably Napa Valley style. Ingredients: Grapes, water, yeast, tartaric acid, sulfur dioxide. Not fined, not filtered. At bottling: total SO2 85 ppm, residual sugar <0.1 g/l (bone dry). Steak wine, the fattier the better.
Winemaker’s Note
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. Enjoy!