10 Jun Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Sosie Wines 2017 Roussanne, Bennett Valley, Vivio Vineyard

Roussanne is a white wine grape grown originally in the Rhône wine region in France. A full bodied white wine, it is typically blended with Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Viognier. But there are single varietal bottlings of Roussanne, such as the Sosie Wines 2017 Roussanne, Bennett Valley, Vivio Vineyard, the Please The Palate wine of the week.

Sosie Wines is a family owned winery in Sonoma. After numerous trips to France, owners Scott MacFiggen and Regina Bustamante founded Sosie Wines in 2017. Sosie is French for doppleganger and Scott and Regina created Sosie with the French wines of the Rhône Valley, the Loire Valley, Burgundy and Bordeaux as their model.

There are less than 400 acres of Roussanne grown in California and Sosie Wines sources their Roussanne from the Vivio Vineyard in the Bennett Valley AVA of Sonoma. The vineyard has a strong marine influence bringing cool air to a hot area resulting in large diurnal shifts between day and night. The Roussanne is late ripening. Once picked, it is fermented whole-cluster with native yeasts.

What is unique about the 2017 Sosie Wines Roussanne is that it was harvested two days before the start of the Tubbs/Nunns Canyon fires that ravaged Sonoma County. Luckily, they were able to make this wine but because they could not get to the winery, the wine was fermented in tank instead of barrels.

The 2017 Sosie Wines Roussanne is a medium-bodied wine with an intensely rich nose of flowers, peach, apricot, orange blossom and lemon. There is a touch of roasted nuts and spice on the finish. In the mouth, the wine is silky and textured with a roundness in the mid-palate surrounded by bright acidity. This wine is rich yet bright.

The Sosie Wines 2017 Roussanne, Bennett Valley, Vivio Vineyard retails for $38 and is a wine that will please a Chardonnay drinker looking for something different.