Tendu Clarksburg Cortese 2018

Tendu is the second label from Jill and Steve Matthiasson, launched in 2012 to produce affordable, organically farmed table wines from Italian varieties grown in California's Sacramento Valley. The name is French for taut, and that word describes the wines exactly. This Cortese is sourced from the Lost Slough Vineyard in the southernmost part of the Clarksburg AVA, near the historic town of Locke on the Sacramento River Delta.

Lost Slough Vineyard sits on deep clay loam soils in a site that stays cool overnight during summer, allowing the grapes to hold onto acidity through a long growing season. The vineyard is farmed organically by Steve Matthiasson. For the 2018 vintage, the grapes were whole-cluster pressed and fermented with native yeasts in neutral oak barrels. The wine was allowed to complete full malolactic fermentation, which enabled bottling without filtration, a consistent principle at Matthiasson.

Cortese is native to Piedmont in northwest Italy and is the sole grape behind Gavi. It is rarely planted in California, making this bottling a genuine outlier in the American wine landscape. At 11.5% ABV, the wine is light on its feet, dry, and driven by citrus and stone fruit character with a mineral, slightly saline finish that reflects its delta terroir. Minimum effective SO2 was used prior to bottling.

The wine is packaged in a short eco-friendly bottle sealed with a compostable and recyclable cork, consistent with the Matthiassons' commitment to reducing environmental impact across the production process.