This is as ‘Feints-y” as it gets, with all the bright, poppy, cranberry spice and herbaceous signatures we’ve come to know and love from this cuvée. The majority of the blend remains the usual Arneis, Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo carbonic co-ferment… All grown at Fox Hill Vineyard: Lowell Stone had quite the vision for his wife Babara’s place. As a young man, he fell head over heels for Italy, particularly it’s wine culture. Finally, in the late 80’s, he took to replanting the entire property, converting it over from mostly Chardonnay and Riesling to many and much more obscure Italian varieties (with a few acres of two Portuguese varieties thrown in for good measure). Today, it’s a library of what one could get their hands on in the way of Italianate grapevines at the time from nurseries, friends, and the odd ‘suitcased’ cuttings. Fox Hill rests between Hopland and Ukiah just up from the Russian River on benchland called the Talmage Bench. Uplifted former riverbed, Fox Hill is predominantly standstone based – very rocky and pebbly, with a large amount of quartz to trip over as one is weaving one’s way in and out of the vine rows that eventually find their way into Mahlon, Chilion, Feints, and Rosé. – Ruth Lewandowski