Troon Vineyard’s Druid’s White is a blend of many grapes native to the Southern Rhône region of France. We have marsanne, roussanne, viognier, grenache blanc, picpoul blanc, clairette blanche, bourboulenc and vermentino all planted on our property, and the blend will change to reflect each vintage. ??In 2023, the picpoul blanc, bourboulenc and clairette blanche were still relatively young, so we excluded them from this year’s Druid’s White and ended with a blend of 35% grenache blanc, 35% marsanne, 25% vermentino, and 5% roussanne. These varieties have been grown together and blended for centuries as they have very complementary attributes - grenache blanc bringing acidity and structure; marsanne richer and rounder stone fruit character; vermentino backbone, verve, and salinity; and roussanne pretty aromatics and minerality.

The grapes for this year’s Druid’s White were harvested over seven days, starting on September 19th and ending on September 25th. The grapes were loaded into the press whole cluster (being first foot-treaded in the case of vermentino) before being gently pressed to stainless steel tanks. The juice then settled for roughly 24 hours before being racked to neutral French oak barrels for fermentation; the vermentino portion was racked to a concrete dolium (upside down “egg”) for fermentation and aging.

As with all wines from Troon, no additives, acid or sugar adjustments, enzymes, or sulfur additions are used at crush. Primary fermentation occurs spontaneously with indigenous/native yeasts and bacteria. The barrel and concrete ferments in our cellar are cool and very slow. They typically take several months to complete their primary fermentation, finishing when the cellar starts warming up in the spring. During this time, malolactic fermentation also occurs spontaneously. Usually, one hundred percent of the malic acid is converted to lactic acid, giving the wines a richer, rounder mouthfeel, which is also enhanced by the extended time spent on their primary lees. After roughly eight months in the barrel, this wine was racked into a tank for blending and bottling, receiving a small sulfur addition before bottling.

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