2023 Héroe Primitivo
What a great wine from start to finish! This uniquely blended Primitivo is fashioned to perfection; offering heaps of delicate red fruit flavors matched with components of toasted oak. So impressively fruity, featuring pure and clean raspberry tart candies, taste of sweet cherries with wild strawberries. The mouthfeel contains reasonable tannins and cheerful acidity maintains on the its finish. I love that this wine is packed and full of flavor, the richness if giving without being overbearing. This well-balanced Primitivo is blended with Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah which lend flavors of pomegranate, black cherry, and blueberry. With 28% new American Oak it’s very easy to find roasted nutmeg, vanilla bean, cocoa, and fresh-cut cedar. Its ripe flavors persist with a fairly long and warm finish. Drink upon wine’s release, at its best by 2030.
Primitivo is a finicky wine and the timing of harvest is crucial! Therefore, we split up our picking into 4 different days. The Primitivo in this wine is from lot’s one and three. One lot being less ripe and one being very raisin-y ripe, thus giving us more complex flavors with a myriad of taste. The first lot was harvested at 25.5 BRIX and we used Premium Zinfandel yeast to conduct fermentation. He third lot was harvested at 27.5 BRIX and we used yeast 3001 for fermentation. We destemmed the fruit and cold soaked for one day prior to fermentation. It’s crucial to tank ferment the wine cold, therefore it took 14 days for both lots to complete fermentation to dryness. We pressed the skins at low psi, followed by settling and racking clean in wine barrels. Lot one was aged in once used 240L American Oak barrels, while lot three was aged entirely in NEW 240L Missouri American Oak M+ toast barrels. The wine is months in barrel, in total 630 cases were bottled in late August 2024.
| Download Wine Notes |
| Vintage | 2023 |
| Varietal | Primitivo |
| Varietal Composition | 86% Primitivo, 14% Cabernet Franc |
| Appellation | Paso Robles |
| Vineyard | Frankel Family Estate |
| Acid | 0.64 g/100 ml |
| PH | 3.65 |
| Residual Sugar | 0.05 g/100 ml |
| Alcohol | 15.60% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Bottling Date | 08/15/2024 |
| Cases Produced | 630 |
Héroe wines are made at Sculpterra Winery and honor our vineyard and winery workers. A portion of each sale go towards supporting the Flying Samaritans Medical Team, who offer medical aid to the less fortunate in Baja, California. Primitivo has been produced since 2012 and has earned an impression reputation for its unique character and big structure with an abundance of fruity qualities. This 2023 vintage is one of the best we’ve produced! The growing season was picture perfect for this variety which requires a lot of water. We experienced 28 inches of rainfall; the most we’ve received since 1997. Therefore, the Primitivo vines flourished with ample canopy growth, lots of green leaf tissue and an overall larger crop load. The harvest dragged on through October and into November due to the unusual cool spring and summer. This wine is 100% Frankel Vineyards and sourced in 2 lots of the 8-acre Ridgeline and 4 Corners Estate Primitivo blocks.
