What Are Violet Vines Ultra Violet Wines?

Did you know that ultraviolet is a spectrum of light that makes up roughly 10% of the electromagnetic output from the sun and is invisible to the human eye?  Despite being invisible to us, ultraviolet light is constantly interacting with organic molecules.  This duality – and rarity – fits perfectly in the Violet Vines brand and it’s why we call our “reserve” wines “Ultra Violets.”

We don’t always produce an Ultra Violet during each vintage and for each varietal, but during our blending process when we identify a perfect combination of two or three exception barrels, that’s when we bottle these remarkable wines (currently available only to our wine club members). 

Some people have asked, what does the blending process look like and how do you identify an Ultra Violet?  Well, it goes something like this:

1. Tim Wilson, our winemaker, and April and I (Brian) pull small samples from each barrel and place those samples in small bottles that are about a quarter of a normal-sized wine bottle.
2. Typically the same day, we sit around a table and sample a small amount of wine from each bottle and take some pretty detailed notes about the nose, color, texture, and of course, the taste. 
3. After sampling wine from each barrel, and based on the characteristics observed, we start experimenting with blending wines from select barrels that display characteristics that may meld well together.  It doesn’t always have to be equal parts from two barrels, it might be a combination such as 20% from Barrel A, 40% from Barrel D and 40% from Barrel G.  Ever heard of 1 + 1 = 3?  Well, we’re looking for 1 + 1 = 10+.  And when we find that 10+, that combination has earned the Ultraviolet label.

To date, we’ve discovered two Ultra Violets…the 2021 Ultraviolet Chardonnay is a Clone 15 Chardonnay sourced from the Eola Springs Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA.  The second Ultra Violet is a 2021 Pinot noir sourced from our estate vineyard in the McMinnville AVA.

Based on some preliminary sampling of our 2022 Pinot noirs, we may have a few possible candidate barrels!