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
2020 Ambar - Vena Cava
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
Having backed off the production of a number of different “amber” wines, this chardonnay is the sole amber going forward. Fermented in open top neutral French oak barrels and then aged in those same barrels for another 3 months, this wine strikes a lovely balance between joyous freshness and creamy notes that at once inviting and cozy. An ostentatious nose of citrus and stone fruits prepares you for the wild an delicious ride ahead.
500 cases made
Drinking window: Now - 3 years
Vintage:
2020
Blend:
100% Chardonnay
Producer:
Vena Cava
Winemaker:
Phil Gregory - British lives in Mexico
Vineyards:
Valle de San Vicente
Winemaking:
Fermentation occurred in open barrels of neutral french oak over a period of 4 weeks before being racked off the lees into a mix of new and neutral French oak barrels and aged for 3 months.
Sulfites: no sulfites are added at any point during the winemaking process.
Farming:
Organic, natural, sustainable
Alcohol:
12%