Steele Whites

STEELE VIOGNIER
LAKE COUNTY
CLEAR LAKE

Vineyards

The unique growing conditions of Lake County provide a few great places to grow Viognier. Our Viognier is a combination of the Fiora Family Vineyard and Dorn Vineyard. The Fiora’s have been growing Viognier grapes for us since 2000. Their vineyard is located on the north side of Lake County at 1500ft just outside of the High Valley appellation. The Dorn family farms several different parcels of land but one that is most intriguing is their home ranch hillside vineyard. This extremely sloped vineyard is nestled on the flanks of Mount Konocti. This mountain is an extinct volcano that dominates the landscape of the Clear Lake appellation. The high elevation in combination with volcanic soils, warm days and cool nights provided an excellent location to grow Viognier. Viognier has shown that it requires much attention both in the vineyard and in the winery.

Winemaking

We ferment the juice in a small stainless steel tank then complete the fermentation in neutral oak barrels. We must pay close attention to this wine. We watch over the barrels and stir them weekly. We evaluate each one for aroma, flavor and color. The wine was lightly filtered and bottled in March to preserve the great Viognier perfume.

Food Pairing

This wine is unique and has flavors that complement Asian foods especially Thai cuisine. It has been a fixture as the house wine for the Sea-Yan Chinese restaurant in New York City for the past five years.