California
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You know what apricots are, those small orange fruits that taste amazing, particularly if you’ve just picked them off a 100-year-old dry farmed tree. This wine isn’t made from apricots, but the concept for this style of wine originated next to a 100-year-old apricot orchard in upper Ojai, the cute little valley that’s between here and the city of Santa Paula.

I won’t go through the whole convoluted story, but the idea for this wine came from two wines we made in 1995 and 1997 from grapes grown next to that orchard. They were full bodied wines, but had unusual freshness and acidity for California wines, in some ways they seemed closer to Italian in style. In any case with time those two wines aged beautifully, and inspired me to make a wine like that once more. Thus, Apricots was born again in 2010 and has been made ever since with the idea that we would age them for many years before releasing them for sale. This 2012 has been in bottle over 5 years and is now strutting its stuff, a fabulously delicious treat that will continue to evolve for another 10-15 years.

Vinification: traditional open-top fermentation | Barrel Aging: 16 months in French oak barrels | Total Production: 93 cases | Blend:50% Grenache 50% Sangiovese

Press Reviews

Antonio Galloni

“The 2012 Apricot is an unusual Grenache/Sangiovese blend from White Hawk that spent two years in barrel. Like most of the more esoteric wines in this range, Adam Tolmach and Fabien Castel find a way to make things work, as they do here. Wild flowers, cedar, sweet pipe tobacco and dark red fruit are given an extra kick of energy from the bright acids that give this wine so much of its feel. There is so much to like here.” 93 Points  Antonio Galloni