2023 iruai 'Psychic Terroir' Red
2023 iruai 'Psychic Terroir' Red
2023 iruai ‘Psychic Terroir’ Red
30% Muscat / 20% Syrah / 20% Cab Franc / 15% Grenache / 15% Gamay
Applegate Valley AVA
12.5% ALC / 500 cases produced
'Psychic Terroir' is a prototype of Proustian exploration in the medium of wine. Think of it as the right brained side of terroir (intuitive, emotional, creative), to the more traditionally referenced left brained side of terroir (analytical, logical, scientific). 'Psychic Terroir' is about all the things that give a wine a sense of place that have nothing to do with soil types, climate, elevation, but rather more esoteric avenues of understanding. How does a wine make you feel? What genre of music would pair with this wine? Can drinking wine transport you to another place or time? One of the most formative wines in my life was a little field blend made by a mentor of mine. The wine was whole cluster fermented red and white grapes (Syrah, Muscat, Cabernet, Zinfandel, Grenache Roussane — just to name a few), and the result tasted little like any of the component parts, but when combined became something transcendent. That wine hasn't been made in twelve years, but I thought it would be a fun experiment to try to recreate it — not literally — but emotionally. Our Psychic Terroir Red is a whole cluster blend of Gamay, Syrah, Muscat, and Grenache from various spots around the Rogue Valley. It's also a love letter to a wine that changed my life a long time ago, a cover song if you will.