2023 Fiano Fizz

Nate Wall’s Winemaker Notes:

Fiano is an ancient grape that dates back to the Roman Empire, where wines made from Fiano were highly regarded. When made into a still wine, as is typical in Italy, Fiano is rich and highly aromatic, with honey notes and a spiciness and nuttiness. But instead of going the more traditional route with a still-white wine, we decided to make bubbles!

The grapes for Troon’s Fiano Fizz come from the home vineyard of our viticulturist, Cole Family Vineyards. They are the only non-estate fruit we work with, as they were planted specifically at our request. We had long thought that the Applegate Valley would be a good match for Fiano, and turns out we were right! 

As is often the case with grapes picked for sparkling wine, the grapes for the 2023 Fiano Fizz were our first pick of the season, harvested on September 14, 2023. After harvest, the grapes made a 20-minute trip across the Applegate River to reach Troon, where they were whole-cluster pressed for sparkling wine. This involves a much slower and gentler press cycle than we would use for a white wine. After pressing, the juice was settled for 24-36 hours in a stainless steel tank before being racked to another stainless steel tank for fermentation - one of the few wines at Troon we ferment in-tank.

As with all wines from Troon, no additives, acid or sugar adjustments, enzymes, or sulfur additions were used at crush. Primary fermentation occurred spontaneously with indigenous/native yeasts and bacteria and proceeded slowly; we performed the tirage bottling on October 24, 2023, after 40 days of fermentation. Finally, after a year en tirage, we did a gentle disgorging of the bottles to remove excess sediment before release.