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Iruai

Arcana Savagnin 2018

Price: $31.95
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Tasting notes

This is one of the only California Savagnins in existence, sourced from a tiny organic vineyard at up to 4,000 feet elevation in the Klamath Mountains. The wine lands somewhere between a Jura blanc ouille and a California white: flinty and electric, with tropical fruit, herbal tea, and a citrusy snap of acidity that keeps everything in check.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
FlintWhite PeachHerbal TeaLemon
  • Style: Dry, medium-bodied white; high acidity; tropical, herbal tea, and flinty mineral notes; 12.5% ABV
  • Grapes & Terroir: 100% Savagnin; organic; Trinity Lakes AVA, Trinity County, CA; rocky gravelly loam, 1,500-4,000 ft elevation
  • Winemaking: Native yeast fermentation; no additions; unfiltered, unfined; no added sulfur; inaugural Iruai vintage
  • Serving: Serve at 48-52F; no decant needed
  • Pairing: Oysters, grilled white fish, roast chicken, young Comté, dishes with citrus and herbs
  • Similar To: For fans of Jura Savagnin, Trousseau Gris, or high-acid alpine whites who want a California expression

The Arcana is 100% Savagnin sourced from Alpen Cellars' organic vineyard in the Trinity Lakes AVA, Trinity County, Northern California. Trinity Lakes sits at elevations between 1,500 and 4,000 feet in a mountainous pocket of the Klamath Mountains, where rocky, thin, gravelly loam soils and a large reservoir create a lake-moderated continental climate with a short 175-to-200-day growing season. Chad Hinds discovered Savagnin growing here under the name traminer — a non-aromatic forebear of Gewürztraminer that is genetically identical to the Jura's signature white grape.

The 2018 vintage was the inaugural release of Arcana and the first wine released under the Iruai label. Hinds transported the fruit to the Bay Area, where he fermented it naturally using native yeasts with no additions. The wine was bottled unfiltered and unfined with no added sulfur. Iruai describes it as "rocky and electric, with a tropical punch and a heady herbal tea perfume." Hinds also noted white flower character alongside savory umami notes, comparing it to "a Margarita doused with snow from the top of Mont Blanc."

Savagnin is a late-ripening, thick-skinned white grape best known as the sole variety permitted in Jura's vin jaune. It produces wines with characteristically high acidity, flinty minerality, and a broad aromatic spectrum that can include citrus, stone fruit, exotic fruit, and herbal notes. In the cool, high-elevation Trinity Lakes site, the grape held acidity well while picking up a distinctly Californian ripeness alongside its alpine character.

Iruai (pronounced "ear-oo-eye") takes its name from the earliest recorded name for California's Scott Valley. The project began as Methode Sauvage in 2013 and has since relocated from Berkeley to the town of Etna in Siskiyou County, where Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds have planted their own vineyard and established a permanent winery.

Pour this with raw shellfish — oysters or littleneck clams — where its minerality and acidity do the heavy lifting. It also works well with grilled white fish, roast chicken with herbs, or a young Comté. The herbal and tropical notes make it a good match for dishes with fresh cilantro, lime, or green chili.

Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, White Wine
Wine Style:, Medium Body
Grapes:, Savagnin
Farming:, Organic
Vintage:, 2018
Alcohol:, 12.5%
Country:, United States
Region:, Trinity Lakes, California
Appellation:, Trinity Lakes AVA
Bottle Size:, 750ml
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.


Important Compliance Requirements

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If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.


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Heat/Frost damage

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Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

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Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Iruai

Iruai Winery was founded in 2013 by Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds under the name Methode Sauvage, operating initially as a nomadic natural wine project out of a winemaking co-op in Berkeley, California. The label name Iruai (pronounced "ear-oo-eye") comes from the earliest recorded name for the Scott Valley in Siskiyou County, where the Hinds family eventually settled. Chad focuses on winemaking and cellar work; Michelle focuses on viticulture, business operations, and accounting.

The pivot toward alpine varieties began when Chad discovered Savagnin growing at Alpen Cellars in the Trinity Lakes AVA, where the proprietor identified it as a variant of Gewurztraminer that did not pick up any color. Recognizing it as the Jura's signature white grape, Hinds began purchasing fruit from the site. In spring 2018, the Hinds also began planting their own vineyard in the California Alps of Siskiyou County, using permaculture methods drawn from Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka. In December 2019, they permanently relocated to Etna, California, where they operate out of a steel building on an alfalfa farm.

Iruai makes wine with no additions and minimal intervention: native yeast fermentation, no fining, no filtration, and no added sulfur (or very low sulfites). The winery describes its approach as "removing no character" from the fruit. The focus is on Jura and Savoie varieties — Savagnin, Trousseau, Mondeuse, Poulsard — grown at high elevation in what Hinds calls the California Alps.

Wine region

Trinity Lakes, California, United States

Trinity Lakes AVA sits in the rugged Klamath Mountains of Trinity County in far Northern California, approximately 65 miles south of the Oregon border. The AVA encompasses roughly 96,000 acres surrounding Trinity Lake and Lewiston Lake, two large man-made reservoirs built in the 1960s, but only about 1.5 percent of that land is suitable for viticulture. Plantable ground is limited to narrow valleys between steep timbered ridges, where elevations range from approximately 1,500 to 4,000 feet above sea level.

The large bodies of water moderate what would otherwise be an extreme continental climate, cooling days and warming nights in the narrow valleys. The growing season runs just 175 to 200 days. Soils in the vineyards are rocky and thin — primarily gravelly loam and coarse sandy loam (haploxerolls) with excellent drainage — forcing vines to root deep to access moisture through summer drought. The first vines were planted here in 1981 by the Groves family at Alpen Cellars, which remains the AVA's founding and most significant producer. The AVA received official TTB recognition in 2005. Cool-climate varieties including Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Blaufrankisch, and Savagnin are particularly well suited to the site.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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