2019 Arbe Garbe White Blend Russian River Valley

12 hours of skin contact for the Malvasia and for the Tocai, followed by light pressing and native fermentation in puncheons and barrels (20% new);whole cluster pressing for the Chardonnay. Post fermentation, batonnage every week for the first 3 months, than every 2 weeks.
50% Catie’s Corner Vineyard Malvasia Bianca, Russian River Valley, 20% Catie’s Corner Vineyard Chardonnay, Russian River Valley,30% Pagani Ranch old vine Tocai Friulano, Sonoma Valley.

The two winemakers, husband and wife Enrico Bertoz and Letizia Paulette explain:
Born and raised in this beautifully mystical scenario, we met at the waning of a torrid Friulian summer. Two philosophy students working harvest in the vineyards nearby to earn some money and follow their dreams. It was the late nineties and nothing seemed to make much sense with Kurt Cobain gone and a generational sense of vague displacement. Quickly our visions fused, our imagery fueled by the same fascination with Beat literature and old American folk and rock music. We packed up a guitar, a few books and little else and crossed the ocean. America was as big and wild as we had pictured it and so beautiful, we knew at once we were destined to stay.

We began crafting Arbe Garbe wines in 2007 as a way to reconnect to our roots. Not much has changed about us: making wine, baking bread, practicing yoga or strumming the guitar, our two boys now tagging along in the adventure.
Arbe Garbe is Friulian for the “bad weeds” which are often used, there like here, as cover crops. Our main label was born in 2007 as a blend of white grapes inspired by the great white wines we have known and loved back in Friuli.
The blend is never quite the same, so every Vintage remains a surprise. This assures as honest an interpretation as possible of each specific Vintage and at the same time allows us to keep experimenting.
The packaging and the label artwork continuously vary as well, according to the ebbs and flows of inspiration, and are part of the same the creative process that originates the wines themselves.