Essenza Dell'Albero Maple Wine

PHILOSOPHY
Mari Vineyards’ first edition of Maple Wine was created entirely from estate sugar maple trees on Old Mission Peninsula and aptly named Essenza Dell’Albero, which means essence of the tree in Italian. This wine features a blend of  syrup tapped each year from 2017 to 2020 and aged in various vessels to highlight different sensory layers of the maple.

FLAVOR NOTES
Deep notes of maple, vanilla, and caramel layer with brighter flavors of pear and apple. Barrel aged character and soft acidity create a delicate, balanced, complexity.

PAIRINGS
Maple Wine is dessert in a glass—lovely on its own as an apéritif or after dinner treat. If pairing, we recommend enjoying with recipes that traditionally involve maple syrup. Perfect for brunch, try fried chicken and waffles, root veggie hash with parsnips and squash, a chocolate hazelnut tart, or vanilla bean ice cream. 

VINIFICATION
The first edition of Essenza Dell’Albero features a blend of four different maple syrup vintages. Each season, syrup was tapped from estate sugar maples, evaporated down, and then brought back through a balancing act of water and residual sugar. The chemistry of the process was approached through the lens of a traditional ice wine. Winemaker Sean O’Keefe brought out different aspects of the maple through different vessels, experimenting each year. 2017 fermented and aged in bourbon barrels from Grand Traverse Distillery, 2018 and 2019 in used Sauternes barrels, 2020 in our own oak and stainless. Maple syrup lacks natural acidity—a notable difference between itself and wine grapes. The addition of tartaric acid (exclusive to wine grapes) completed the balance against deeper flavors. The finished wine was bottled on November 23rd, 2022.

CELLARING
The intensity and high residual sugar of this wine will allow it to age for an extended time. As this is our first edition, we invite you to experiment along with us.