In the dialect spoken in Piedmonte, from where the grape hails, Arneis is translated to “the little rascal.” after working with this grape at Fox Hill Vineyard since 2009, I know exactly why they call it that. It can be finicky in the vineyard, prone to low yields and plummeting acidity/skyrocketing ripeness levels. It can also be a rascal in the cellar, oxidizing if you look at it sideways. These are but a few of the factors that have caused me to release this wine infrequently...on average in just 50% of vintages. When it's right, it is righteous...taut, mineral, exotically perfumed. This little rascal is absolutely worth the pain.

This wine comes from the older block of Arneis at Fox Hill Vineyard (the younger stuff finds it’s way into ‘Feints’). Older vines and thinner, rockier soils lend smaller clusters, smaller berry counts and relatively higher skin to juice ratios. Therefore Mahlon ends up being being quite a concentrated, intense version of Arneis. ’22 Mahlon is at once textbook and surprising. Fresh and lemony, saline breezy and savory. Snappy yet textural, with textbook little white flowers, bitter almond and miso. Historically a very difficult cuvée to make without added sulfur, this is one of the rare vintages where the wine provided that opportunity. 

- Evan Lewandowski