2016 Hatton Daniels ‘Mokelumne Glen’ Dornfelder

Price: $23 Region: Lodi < CaliforniaGrapes: DornfelderVineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming; limestone/granitic soils. Early harvest, some destemmed to tank, some pressed whole cluster; some whole clusters fermented in there, then blended and aged in neutral barrel for 4 month; bottled unfined/unfiltered with no added sulfur; 47 cases; 10.6% ABVWinemaker: Dan Fishman Another crazy wine from Dan Fishman of the tiny Cali wine project Hatton Daniels, a friend from my nerdy sommelier tasting group. Dan, a quiet, modest and incredibly smart dude, left his PHD program to pursue the wine dream and conspired with 3 friends in 2009 to start Hatton Daniels, with the goal of making honest, terroir-specific, natural wines. And they love weird grapes, like Dornfelder, of German origin, which usually makes a super opaque, dense and chewy wine – but here, because they pick so early and only let the juice rest for 12 days on the skins, you get an incredibly inky wine with all of those beautiful c