2006 Scholium Project Prince In His Caves Farina Vineyard

(from the same Farina Vineyards sauvignon blanc parcel that went into the Severita di Bruto bottling, but from a muscat clone, which gives fatter and less tannic grapes; this wine spent three weeks on its skins and was done in all new barriques, where it took a full year to finish its malolactic fermentation) Full medium gold. Pungent aromas of catnip, marjoram and wheat grass. Gives a very dry impression that's accentuated by a level of acidity that's quite high for a malolactic wine. There's impressive thickness of texture here for a wine with a moderate 13.6% alcohol, not to mention a level of volatile acidity (1.2 grams per liter) that would make it illegal in Canada and Japan. A real basket of contradictions. Does the wine's pungency come from the grapes' seeds? Schoener's model here is the wines of Radikon and Edi Kante in that he was looking for an herbal sharpness-the opposite, he says, of a Gravner wine that's been softened by exposure to oxygen. He compares it in texture to a big cabernet or a Priorat red. Your move.