2025 Loom Wines, Ugni Blanc, Maison Mason Vineyard, Willow Creek District AVA, Paso Robles.
The crisp, light yellow/gold and bone dry Ugni Blanc from Loom Wines was a nicely made and refreshing white, crafted from this little known varietal, with tangy lime citrus, melon, unripe peach and a hint of mango fruits on the steely light bodied palate. A hint of seashore, herb and salty chalk add accents to this Summery wine, making it a good pairing with Oysters, which were luckily on the menu when I sampled this bottle at Finca in Paso Robles, where this wine was born. The grapes, came in early and cool to the winery at were foot trod, with about 2 hours of skin contact before being fermented and raised, on the lees for 5 months, exclusively in stainless steel, which preserved the vitality and clean details here. This is one of my first ever reviews of pure Ugni Blanc, as usually it doesn’t make for such interesting wine, but Loom has captured its best side here and it certainly deserves merit!
Loom Wines, a tiny wine project, are Cecilia and Diego Aguirre, a husband and wife team, who are focused on single-vineyard and single-variety, low-intervention wines, the duo launched the project to express specific Paso Robles terroirs. Cecilia, who has a degree from Cal Poly, is also working as an assistant winemaker at Booker, while Diego is operating the outstanding restaurant FINCA, mentioned above, in downtown Paso. Both have years of winery and vineyard experience and recently decided to do a fun side project, pretty much being in 2022, creating Loom Wines. Now Ugni Blanc, that was just by chance, but it turned out to be a delicious low alcohol, under 11%, quaffer. Ugni Blanc, most famously is one of the Cognac grapes, but is also known as Trebbiano in some parts of Italy and has a history in Provence as well. It is rare as a single varietal table wine, especially here in California, though its lively acidity and pithy bitter fruit character make it tasty with briny dishes.
($38 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive