Hiyu 'Aesalon' Columbia Gorge White Wine, 2023, 750ml

From a field of Spanish and Portuguese white and pink varieties in the Southeast corner of the farm. This continues to be a wondrously evolving and confoundingly changeable and complex wine. Each parcel has had a unique trajectory as the mixture of cultivars adapts to the site and we learn better how to farm and vinify it. When I think of this wine and attempt to describe it to other wines immediately leap to my mind. One is Dagnueneau Pouilly Fumé "Silex" and the other is the Trebbiano from Emidio
Pepe.

With Silex Dagueneau proved that the humble Sauvignon Blanc was capable of a luxuriousness of expression to rival the greatest Burgundies. This wine both does that trick in a way that very closely mirrors Silex. With each vintage it's texture has become more refined and detailed, but it is also overtly our most sauvignon like wine. It's scent has the same subtly provocative scent of ripe charentais melon allied with pungent herbs and sharp mineral. But at the same time that it is doing this luxurious thing, it is still alluding to the farm. This is where the connection with Emidio Pepe comes in. Those are profound ageable white wines built on the relationship between funk and transcendence and exploring all the deep connections between soil microbes and the array of yeast and bacteria that can be harnessed to build flavor in the finished wine.
The 23 Aesalon can be experienced on both of these levels and moving between them is perhaps the most fascinating part of the experience. On a purely sensual level this is the most perfumed, dense, concentrated and scintillatingly long version of this wine to date.