Hiyu Wine Farm Aesalon 2021

Hiyu Wine Farm Aesalon 2021

Hiyu Wine Farm
$120.00

Grape: Spanish and Portuguese White Blend
Vintage: 2021
Type: White

This low-intervention white wine is an artisanal field blend composed of traditional Spanish and Portuguese white varieties grown in the Columbia Gorge. Winemaker Nate Ready manages the estate using permaculture and regenerative farming, allowing diverse animals to graze the rows. The hand-picked grapes are pressed gently and ferment spontaneously with native wild yeasts in neutral French oak casks. The wine matures undisturbed on its fine fermentation lees for several months to encourage natural structural harmony without wood dominance.

It pours a pale straw-yellow color, releasing clean aromatics of green orchard fruit, lemon peel, and wild mountain herbs. On the palate, a sleek, medium-bodied frame balances crisp fruit flavors with an underlying stony mineral core. A lively, electric acidity slices directly through the center of the wine, providing excellent structural tension. Subtle notes of raw almond and an Atlantic-like salinity add depth across the clean framework. It finishes completely bone-dry.

Hiyu is a true mixed farm with pigs, cows, chickens, ducks and geese living among the vines during different parts of the year and helping to control the vegetation. Nate calls their vineyard management, which has been deeply influenced by Masanobu Fukuoka, “the wild side of permaculture”.

The property is divided into half-acre blocks, each planted to a field blend from a different place or moment in the genetic history of the grapevine, with up to 150 different varieties and clones in total.

The name “Hiyu” comes from Chinook Jargon, where it denotes “abundance”, “plenty” or “big party”. Nate Ready used to work as a sommelier in various fine establishments, including the lauded Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Napa Valley. China Tresemer, the estate’s co-founder and agriculturalist, is also a talented illustrator who creates all the labels.

Manual harvest into small baskets, whole cluster macerations, foot-treading and basket press, slow fermentation with indigenous yeasts only. Aged in old neutral oak barrels of various sizes. No fining or filtration, no sulfur at bottling.