We recently went out to the crush facility to take barrel samples and see how the wine is developing. It is amazing how much the wine can vary from barrel to barrel. They are all recognizably the same wine, but different barrels reflect different facets. It’s just another one of those fascinating bits of the alchemy of winemaking. As for the wine’s development, we’re starting to get a clear picture of the final wine – oh, there’s a few tweaks to be made here and there, and a few decisions yet to go, but it’s all starting to come together. It’s going to be a lovely little wine, all beautiful Russian River Zinfandel qualities on the nose, bright and lively and elegant across the palate. 

In other news…we’re starting to gear up for harvest 2023! There’s a good chance it’s going to be an epic one. This long cool summer has delayed the vintage a fair bit, with verasion only a few weeks behind us over in Suisun. So with that ahead of us, we’ve opened up some early pre-sales for Fortuna Redux ’22 at buy.novakmasoncellars.com.