100% Brianna from Vergennes, VT. Biodynamic.

Only 25 cases produced.

From the producer:

What There Was is the first cuvee we've made specifically to convey the idiosyncrasies of the season's weather. Every wine should be in part an expression of the year’s weather, a significant aspect of the idea of terroir, but 2023 was such a challenging vintage we wanted to label a wine that gives voice to the different extremes the vines experienced and directly share their resilience. There was a killing frost on May 17th and then a summer of rain with flood watches almost every day for 6 weeks resulting in fruit with different expressions, particularly in our white grapes.

Normally, we make a deep and textured white from Brianna, as well as a sparkling white, and a coferment with cider. But 2023 gave us different fruit with a different story to tell and this wine is a bright, fresh white with a snappy vivace texture bottled under crown cap to capture a little anticipatory prickle. Each year, we will choose a wine from one of our vineyards that shows a different illustration from the typical manifestations of our wines in response to how the season was shaped by the climate and it will be named What There Was. We imagine the grapes we pull from will often be different from year to year, but may also sometimes be the same. The 2023 comes from the Brianna block in the Vergennes vineyard, a year significantly marked by that late spring frost and repeated flooding.

As we respond as farmers and winemakers to the extreme shifts in weather that we experience these days, we are always ready to bottle the given narrative of the wine rather than trying to dictate what the wine is. The wine will simply be an expression of what there was. With notes of apples, jasmine, and limestone and a well integrated gentle acidity. Delicious with oysters, cured meats, sausages, pickled vegetables, pâtés, and porchetta.