2024 PFM
98 Points - Double Gold - Best in Class
As much as I would love to continue with the accolades, bottom line the 2024 PFM is delicious and fun to drink. Somewhat surprised our highest rated wine ever is the PFM, until I take a sip and then another and another. As a white Grenache, the PFM delivers a flavor profile and drinking experience unlike any other wine I make. With that, let us take a deep dive into how the PFM came to be.
Rewind to the fall of 2022, just before harvest, I was looking over the forecast grape harvest and planning the resulting wines. We, fortunately, had tremendous success with our 2021 Bolter rosé as it was tasty and sold out early in the summer. As the summer is prime rosé drinking time what with the beach, pools, barbecues, hot tubs, etc. it does not work for us to run out too soon. With that in mind, I decided to try and add a grape into the rosé blend we typically use, Tannat and Pinot Noir. An odd combination yes but so good and we have used that mix since 2018 with great success.
Grenache is often used for rosé and I had a perfect source that had contacted me recently. Plan was to bring in the Grenache, go direct to press, ferment in barrel, and see if the resultant wine would work with our Tannat and Pinot. We picked the grapes just before what I would do for a red wine so that I could get most of the aroma and flavor but still have good acidity in the final wine. As you would expect with Grenache, the grapes were red/purple skins with clear juice and pulp. Grenache is not typically known for having a huge amount of dark pigmentation but there was definitely color and I expected a light to medium pink component wine.
Just after harvesting, we placed the grapes directly into the bladder press and started the white wine cycle, a gentle hour long process designed to coax the juice from the whole grape clusters. For most white wines, I target around 130 gallons a ton. That is 130 gallons of juice from a ton of grapes. With the Grenache, I used the same process, pressed gently, and ended up with just over 130 gallons of juice. I will normally taste the juice coming from the press during the cycle and the flavors from the Grenache were incredible. The one thing I did not expect was the lack of color, if I strained my eyes, I could detect a hint of pink but the juice looked substantially clear and bright, even less color than our Chardonnay or Viognier. No problem, the flavors and aromas are most important and, if needed, I could adjust color later by adding a little red Grenache wine.
I decided to barrel ferment the juice so into the neutral French oak it went, for fermentation about 50 gallons into a 59 gallon barrel. That same day, I inoculated with the yeast strain I use for the CAVU, our 100% Viognier. Normally for a white wine, we place the barrels in the cool cellar and expect to ferment all of the sugar over the course of two to three weeks. The 2022 fermentation was uneventful, the barrels smelled and tasted great throughout the process and the wine was dry, all sugar converted to alcohol, in about 18 days. For this wine, I knew we did not want malolactic fermentation to occur so sulfur addition occurred as soon as the wine was dry.
After adding the sulfur, we topped the barrels, filling them all the way to the top and set them aside for about a month to settle. During that time, I really did not think about the wine much but instead concentrated on all of the other fermentations of the harvest.
Fast forward to the end of harvest, it was time to go and taste all of the wines and get an initial read on how the vintage would turn out. We started with the whites and then moved onto the three different rosé, the Grenache, the Tannat, and the Pinot Noir. Of note, I normallyI keep the Tannat and Pinot separate until just before bottling. Tannat and Pinot were just as expected, we even did a quick, ad hoc blend and it was tasty.
Trying the Grenache rosé, I did not know fully what to expect. Thiefing the wine into glasses, the first thing was there was no longer any hint of pink. The wine was perfectly clear and almost without color, maybe a very pale straw. Swirling the wine around my Volatus tasting glass, I stopped and tentatively put my nose into the bowl to smell the wine. Holy Shit!, I was not prepared for what hit me. The wine smelled amazing and immediately transported me to a time and place I had not thought of in years. Interestingly, I find smells do that to me more than any of my other senses, but where did I go. I jumped back almost forty years to my midwest childhood and my favorite gum, odd I know. There was a gum in white package with a zebra and every now and again a temporary tattoo, Fruit Stripe. One of the most distinctive flavors of my childhood jumped from the glass. It smelled so good and tasted even better, ripe, round, fruity, and delicious.
Immediately, I knew this wine could not be a blender, it had to go into bottle on its own. The Bolter blend was great on its own it did not need the Grenache, and the Grenache needed nothing else but to be a new Volatus wine. I tried the wine from barrel multiple times to verify my initial impression, every single time, it got better. PFM, Pure F*%$^ing Magic, was born.
I knew the name had to be PFM, as a former Navy fighter pilot it was a term we used all the time. There were things that you did not quite understand but you were very happy they were there, in effect, all magic! The final question was whether or not to put the varietal on the bottle. Ultimately, I decided to go with Grenache. Technically, it was a white Grenache and I knew that would be confused with Grenache Blanc, a completely separate varietal. Upon release, the PFM went crazy, selling out in just a few short months.
That is when the real challenge started, I had to do it again the following year. For 23 and 24 I used the same vineyard and process and it worked beautifully. We had figured out how to consistently make a white Grenache with similar flavors and aromas while being almost completely colorless. The 2023 was good, a cool growing season led to a slightly more acidic wine but it was fun to drink and even more food friendly. But the 2024, wow, not sure it gets much better. Nailed the harvest and process and this current release is insanely good.
Long road, I know, but the PFM story needed to be told. If you have not tried this wine, get over to the tasting room soon as the 2024 will be gone in a few short weeks.
Fights’s On!
Bull Schmitt
