En Cavale 'Who Goes There?' Skin Contact White Wine 2021

After a few trials, the wine was blended, a small amount of sulfur was added (25 ppm), and then it was racked to neutral barrels to rest for a few months prior to bottling.The wine is salty and textural, hinting at tropical and citrus fruit both preserved and fresh, with a mild sense of chaos underneath it all. 

En Cavale Wine was started in 2017 by Wolfgang Weber and Chad Westbrook Hinds as a way to re-examine classic west coast grape varieties like sauvignon blanc and zinfandel through the prism of natural winemaking. That lineup now includes the Italo-Mediterranean stalwarts vermentino and sangiovese, as well as the occasional experimental release. 

As they put it, “we work with vineyards farmed according to natural and organic principles in slightly out of the way places with deep and weird geological histories; the Mt. Diablo-California Delta triangle and the limestone escarpments of Calaveras are as freaky as any terroir in California!”

At the winery Chad and Wolfgang attempt to capture a sense of those special places through naturally minded winemaking, which here means no additives or inoculations, and not taking anything away from what the wine and vintage have to say. They typically add minimally-effective sulfur several weeks before bottling, but that’s it. En Cavale believes natural wines of real character should be accessible and affordable to anybody who seeks them out, and not rarities shared only by a chosen few.