The Vena Cava Estate
- Vena Cava is a boutique winery founded in 2005 by Phil and Eileen Gregory under the principles of passion and quality over quantity. While they didn’t start with the intention of making “natural” wines, the more they learned the more this seemed the only interesting route forward. Today they are among the standouts of wineries in Mexico that are making exceptional wines in a “natural” style. While the estate makes wines that are strictly natural and others that are organic and noninterventionist (yet still apply some conventional techniques), we offer only their purely natural wines.
- All Vena Cava wines that have “Crystal Ship" or“Natural” as part of the name are made with organic grapes, fermented with native yeast, see no corrections, fining or additives and are bottled unfiltered with only a minimal amount of sulfites.
- While Vena Cava has its own estate vineyards, they have focused their business model on creating deep relationships with the best growers and the best vineyard sites such that, today, only 10% of their wines come from their estate owned grapes.
Vineyard locations, elevations and grape varieties –
- In addition to their 9.8 acres of estate vineyards located next to the winery in Valle de Guadalupe, they source their grapes from a number of select sites in Valle de Ojos Negros, Valle de San Vicente and Valle de Santo Tomás. All are organically farmed.
Total production: 10 regular wines and 10 “experimental” wines that change occasionally from vintage to vintage, 2,000 cases
2021 Crystal Ship Ambar CB - Vena Cava
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
Perhaps the most captivating amber of the three in Vena Cava's lineup, Vena Cava’s Amber Chenin Blanc represents another reference wine for this style. “living wines” that have zero sulfite additions at any point in the process, the evolution of these natural bottlings are difficult to pin down as they are constantly on the move. What’s consistent is a raw and fresh expression of Chenin unlike you’ve probably ever seen before. Without sulfites freezing it in time, or curtailing any amount of its inherent expression, this is an experience in a bottle.
As with the rest ofthe natural wines coming from Vena Cava, this has undergone the Crystal Ship rebranding.
76 cases made
Drinking Window: Upon release - 3 years
Vintage:
2021
Blend:
100% Chenin Blanc
Producer:
Vena Cava
Winemaker:
Phil Gregory - British, lives in Mexico
Vineyards:
Valle de San Vicente - vines have an average age of 20 years in a vineyard site of 10 hectars. Soil is rich in clay and lies at an elevation of 600 ft.
Winemaking:
The pressed juice was fermented with 20% whole clusters in a combination of neutral French oak barrels, clay amphoras, and flexi tanks for 4 weeks before being racked off the lees and aged in neutral french oak for 3 months. All fermentation is carried out with native yeasts and the wine is bottled unfiltered and unfined.
Sulfites: Sulfites are not used at any point in the winemaking process.
Farming:
Organic, natural, sustainable
Alcohol:
14.3%
