Ruth Lewandowski, Tatto Skin-Contact Blend 2021 (Orange)

Ruth Lewandowski, Tatto Skin-Contact Blend 2021

Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Malvasia Bianca, Kerner, Trebbiano, Moscato Bianco

Mendocino, California

“I've said it a thousand different ways since the beginning of Ruth Lewandowski Wines, and I think its most comprehensible to explain “Ruth” as a concept more than a living, breathing individual. A concept born out of the affiliation of my own philosophies of farming and winemaking (which indeed spill over to inform so many of my life beliefs) and one small but very significant text in the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Ruth. Without sounding 'preachy' and so as not to offend the sensitive, and in the interest of concisely summing things up, I don't believe there to be a deeper, more compelling depiction of the natural cycle of death and redemption (both in the physical realm we can see and the spiritual realm we often do not) than this one short book.

Nothing that is alive today could be so without something having died first. This is the redemptive nature of our universe, of our planet, of our soils, plants, and ultimately you and I. The cessation of things is necessary to begin anew, even more fully. From the wreckage of death and tragedy at the beginning of the book of Ruth, a young woman finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live....not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all. The regeneration of the life of our soils occurs only through organic matter...all completely dead, broken down carbon-based items. A natural fermentation is the building up and dying off of multiple strains of yeast and bacteria, each paving the way for the next strain to take over (and each leaving their altogether unique signatures of flavor, aroma, and textural compounds).

Who is Ruth? Well, with this sort of explanation, I suppose I could say that there is a bit of Ruth in all of us.

Each was vinified separately by way of whole cluster skin maceration during fermentation. The bombastic and imminently drinkable skin contact one. Per protocol and by design, this is explosive florals, spice, orange zest and musk. Peeling layers back to find clove and sandalwood … if you were paying close enough attention while enthusiastically downing the bottle, that is.” -Ruth Lewandowski Wines