Wine Club Member Exclusive through July 2024
A new vintage of L'Enfant Sauvage is always released with great excitement. L'Enfant Sauvage is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes hand-harvested from our Brick Kiln and Sculpture Garden vineyards here in Bridgehampton. The grapes are gently whole cluster-pressed, the juice settled overnight and then all new French oak barrels are filled to the top. The ambient/wild/spontaneous yeast kick in and the wine ferments. The secondary malo-lactic fermentation also happens spontaneously and we leave the wine on its lees with no topping until blending and bottling. This release, our 2018 L'Enfant Sauvage, spent 16 months in all new barrels, followed by another 6 months in tank! The wine is delicious, elegant, satisfying, juicy, wild and complex! The 2018 L'Enfant Sauvage is a beautiful clear gold color and possesses, piercing flavors and aromas of apples, lemon curd, pears, just-baked brioche, vanilla, pineapple, brown baking spices and salty minerals. The wine is dry, medium-bodied, has balanced acidity, moderate alcohol...and a long, complex, persistent finish. The aromas and flavors are fairly intense and long-lasting yet there is restraint, elegance and finesse enrobed in the rich, barrel-fermented style. One of the very rewarding aspects of L'Enfant is how approachable it is in its youth yet it really is a wine meant for 8-12 years of aging in bottle. It is thrilling to see the wine develop beautifully and still offer remarkable freshness, aliveness and potential for further development at six or eight or ten years of age. L'Enfant is always a great match for lobster, scallops, truffles, roast chicken, goose, wild salmon, arctic char and mushroom dishes. As we like to say, our 2018 L'Enfant Sauvage is a wine with a wild treble, a deep bass, a funky rhythm section, unforgettable melodies and beautiful harmony...don't miss the music! On August 14th, 2020 358 cases were bottled.
