Troon Vineyard’s Druid’s White is intended to be a blend comprising many of the grapes native to Southern France. We grow marsanne, roussanne, viognier, grenache blanc, picpoul blanc, clairette blanche, bourboulenc, and vermentino, and our blend will change to reflect each vintage. ??In 2024, the blend contains 48% grenache blanc, 17% bourboulenc, 14% roussanne, 11% vermentino, 5% clairette blanche, and 5% picpoul blanc.

These varieties have been grown together and blended for centuries, as they possess very complementary attributes. Grenache blanc brings acidity and structure, bourboulenc is richer and rounder, roussanne offers pretty aromatics and salinity, vermentino provides backbone and subtle salinity, clairette blanche brings freshness and picpoul blanc contributes a bright lemon acidity.

The grapes for this year’s Druid’s White were harvested over six days, starting on September 19th and ending on September 24th. The grapes were loaded into the press whole cluster (sometimes first being foot-treaded) 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 Grenache Blanc 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 barrels and concrete fermenters in our cellar are cool and slow, typically taking several months to complete their primary fermentation, finally finishing when the cellar starts warming up in the spring. During this time, malolactic fermentation also occurs spontaneously. Typically, 100% of the malic acid is converted to lactic acid, resulting in wines with a richer, rounder mouthfeel, which is further enhanced by the extended time spent on their primary lees. After roughly ten months in barrel, this wine was racked to a tank for blending and bottling, receiving a small sulfur addition before bottling.