Lightwell Survey Hintermen 2018

Producer: Lightwell Survey
Varietals: 59% Riesling and 41% Petit Manseng
Region: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Lightwell Survey is a collaborative effort in creative winemaking spearheaded by Ben Jordan, the winemaker behind Early Mountain.  Their work shies away from overly boisterous, heavily extracted styles often seen in internationally styled wines, favoring minimal intervention winemaking, minimal filtration, careful co-fermentation, and the mingling of both hybrid and vinifera grapes.  They are know in Virginia and beyond as pioneers in a new era of expressive, craft-oriented winemaking.

Their fruit comes from a variety of sources throughout the Shenandoah Valley:   In this case, their Riesling is from Swoope and their Petit Manseng is from Stuart's Draft.

True to Lightwell's minimalistic form, the whole-cluster fruit was foot-treaded and gently allowed to macerate on the skins.  They then co-fermented bot varietals in neutral Hungarian and French oak barrels.  After moderate aging for 14 months on the lees, the wine was bottled without fining or tartrate stabilization.

Translation: this means that this wine is intentionally rustic.  You will find a pearlescent cloudiness in the glass, and perhaps a few tiny crystals at the base of the cork or the tail of the bottle.  These are harmless precipitates of natural acids that drops when the wine is chilled.  

These things may strike flags as flaws in the sommelier's court, but when rusticity is balanced and well-constructed, it carries as much, if not more, nuance, grace, and mystique as the finest refined bottle on the shelf.

In the words of Lightwell, "the palate is giving and lush while being full of vibrant, energetic acid. It's so tart it makes you squint, but the fruit is so generous it hardly hurts as much as you think."