Osa Major Wines is a one-woman enterprise - from trucking grapes to selling bottles and everything in between. Winemaker and owner Emily Fernwood spent the years after college traveling and working harvest gigs the world over, from California and Oregon to Australia and New Zealand, until founding Osa Major Wines in 2020.

Winemaker's notes: Elegant and perfumed, this wine bucks the trend of Mourvedre being a dense and tannic wine. I chose to treat these grapes as I would a Pinot Noir, with a somewhat cool fermentation and gentle cap management to avoid over-extraction. The result is light-bodied, with soft tannins and notes of lifted blackberries, fresh plum, and just a hint of gaminess and sage.

Farming: Kirtlan Vineyard sits in the deep clay loam soils in the Clarksburg AVA, in the heart of the Sacramento River Delta. Cool winds and the river system flowing through the area contribute to a large difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures during the growing season, keeping the wines lively and fresh. The vines are own-rooted and for most of their lives were grafted with Sauvignon Blanc, before being allowed to grow from their original rootstock starting in 2018.

Vinification: These vines were hand-picked and brought to the winery, where the grapes were placed into a one-ton fermenter 75% destemmed and 25% whole cluster. Fermentation was completed in seven days with two punch-downs per day, after which they were pressed and racked into neutral barrels, where they aged for 10 months. Bottled unfined/unfiltered July 28, 2022.