Waypoint, Ritchie Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma County, California, USA 2021

An utterly delicious Sauvignon Blanc from the famed Russian River Chardonnay site, Ritchie Vineyard. This wine offers fresh, ripe fruit aromatics of apricot, and 100% oak fermentation gives the aromas richness and a touch of spice. The palate is sumptuous. Fleshy grilled peach, ripe pineapple, and delicious lemon cream dominate the flavour profile with an underlying flinty minerality. Gorgeous wine.

Winemaker Matt Sands was able to snag a few rows of Clone 1 Sauvignon Blanc from Block C of the famous Ritchie Vineyard in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley—wonderfully pleasant aromas of white strawberries, wet river stones, dried plantains and jasmine florals. A remarkable richness unfolds on the medium-bodied palate, offering up tropical fruit and kiwi notes with grippy grape skin tannins and a long mineral finish, indeed from vines growing in a pocket of white tufa soils. Absolutely worth holding a few bottles and enjoying over the next 5-8 years or more. They are aged 12 months in neutral French Ermitage cigar barrels and a mix of new and used French Sylvain, Bel Air, and Saury barrels. Waypoint is a label in the New Frontier Wine Co. portfolio. The wines are produced by Matt Sands and Philippe Melka, along with assistant winemaker Mark Pittman.