SEMINA CORTESE ‘SKIN CONTACT’

SEMINA CORTESE ‘SKIN CONTACT’2025 GRAPES: CORTESE (75%), ARNEIS (25%) SKIN CONTACT: 37 DAYS REGION: MENDOCINO, CALIFORNIA, USA Producer: Semina is a small Berkeley project devoted to Italian grape varieties grown in cool corners of the West Coast. The fruit for this wine comes from the certified organic Fox Hill Vineyard on the Talmage Bench in Mendocino, a benchland above the Russian River whose warm days and cool nights echo Piedmont the spiritual home of these grapes.

2025

GRAPES: CORTESE (75%), ARNEIS (25%)

SKIN CONTACT: 3–7 DAYS

REGION: MENDOCINO, CALIFORNIA, USA

Producer: Semina is a small Berkeley project devoted to Italian grape varieties grown in cool corners of the West Coast. The fruit for this wine comes from the certified-organic Fox Hill Vineyard on the Talmage Bench in Mendocino, a benchland above the Russian River whose warm days and cool nights echo Piedmont — the spiritual home of these grapes. Everything is hand-harvested and made with patience and a gentle touch.

Vinification: 75% Cortese and 25% Arneis, hand-picked on an early August morning and carried to the cellar as whole clusters. The Arneis is lightly foot-tread and left on its skins for seven days; the Cortese gets a shorter three-day maceration to keep it lifted. Each is pressed separately — the Arneis to neutral French oak, the Cortese to stainless steel — where they finish fermenting and rest about six months. Just 280 cases made.

Tasting notes: light-bodied, lemon pith, green almond, white blossom, with a saline lift and the gentlest skin grip

Pairing: linguine alle vongole

DRINK: NOW TO 2028

ORGANIC