2019 Ovid Experiment No. N4.9 Red Napa Valley California USA

Winemaker Notes
This is the third time we’ve produced our “N” or Neighbor series. With this wine, we were interested in exploring the effect of canopy structure. The vineyard of choice employs a canopy structure known as a Modified California Sprawl. Shoots grow up from the cordon, arc out toward the center of the row and then drape downward or sprawl. Our expectation was that the sprawling canopy will allow good midday light interception by the fruit and good afternoon protection from the heat and sun.

A neighboring vineyard that was farmed in a similar manner to our Pritchard Hill estate was first selected. It had both the Modified California Sprawl trellising as well as a tighter Vertical Shoot Position trellis with the same row orientation. This allowed us to see how both performed. Observations were made during the growing season, and wine was made from the vineyard, aged for 20 months and then bottled in the exact same way as our estate red.