After a beautiful, but abbreviated harvest of 2026 - more on that later - it is time to turn our attention to the new releases for the Fall and Winter. We have a lovely selection of four wines to release today, including the final vintage of two of our favorite wines. This release includes the last ever French Creek Mourvèdre, and Celilo Traditional Method Sparkling, as well as the new vintages of the Mountain Monster Mourvèdre and the WeatherEye Roussanne. Of note, while we are not dogmatic about SO2 additions in wine, we do find an incredible freedom in making un-sulfured expressions. All four wines in this release were bottled without the addition of SO2 at any stage.
These are the last releases of the first two wines in this offer, while we will miss them dearly, we couldn't be more excited about what is to come:
2025 French Creek Mourvèdre – A bittersweet release as this is the last French Creek Mourvèdre. This wine began as my first experiment into unsulfured winemaking back in 2016 and has been a consistent part of what we do here at Devium ever since. Unfortunately, due to some management changes at French Creek Vineyard, we are no longer working with the site. While on the one hand it is sad to say farewell to a longstanding site that we have loved for a decade, on the other, this opens a lot of exciting possibilities for Devium to explore in the future. At least we are going out with a bang. The 2025 is classic Devium Mourvèdre, vibrant, fresh, food friendly and just plain delicious. I look forward to sharing this final vintage with you all.
2019 Celilo Blanc de Blanc Traditional Method Sparkling – Another swansong vintage in this release. The final vintage of our three-year exploration into traditional method sparkling wine. There isn’t much left to say about this project that I haven’t already said. Inspired by grower Champagne, 66 month sur lie aging, non-dosage, no SO2, extremely limited production. This wine will never be made again, so don’t miss it! After this was offered to the Devium Club last month, we are down to less than 25 cases remaining. Please don't wait to order if you are interested!
New releases of two limited production staples of the Devium line up, the Roussanne continues to find itself more and more with each new release, and the Mountain Monster has hidden depths we never expected:
2024 WeatherEye Roussanne – Singular, thought provoking, idiosyncratic, cult favorite? Whatever you may think about the WeatherEye Roussanne, at least it is never boring. The longer I make this wine the more I learn from it. It almost tells you what it wants in plain English: Longer barrel aging? Sure. No SO2? Why yes, of course. During this wine’s two-year elevage in barrel, I always thought it was nice, a very good vintage of the WeatherEye Roussanne, I was pleased with it. However, once we racked it to tank for bottling, it was like fireworks going off. That little bit of movement and oxygen, the wine absolutely exploded into life. Waves of complexity, vibrant acidity, structure, and a healthy dose of gravitas, if we don’t offer this wine now, the winery crew will probably just drink it all. It is that good.
2023 Mountain Monster Mourvèdre – A study in patience, an ambitious vineyard, and the magic of a cold cellar. The 2023 Mountain Monster spent an entire 35 months in neutral barrels before bottling. Every time I thought about bottling this wine, we would taste it and wonder what would happen if we waited, so we did, again and again and again. Finally, after nearly three years, the wine felt ready, it had reached a beautiful balance between youthful fruit and the savory elements of age. While hand bottling this wine in August, Baily and I couldn’t help but continually refill our glasses. It was too delicious to put down. Bottled by hand, no SO2 added, 35 months in neutral oak, one delicious experiment.
Thank you all so much for your continued interest and support. It is a great pleasure to be able to share these wines with all of you.
Cheers and happy Fall,
Keith
