Onward Suisun Valley Malvasia Bianca Petillant Naturel Capp Inn Ranch 2022

Malvasia Bianca smells like it ought to be sweet, all jasmine, orange blossom and lychee, the entire tropical perfume counter, which makes the first sip of this pét-nat genuinely disorienting. It is bone dry. Faith Armstrong-Foster, who named Onward after the boat she rode to school off the British Columbia coast, sources the fruit from Capp Inn Ranch in Suisun Valley and bottles the wine before primary fermentation has finished, trapping the bubbles the old-fashioned way. Beneath all that perfume sits a chalky, focused palate with a fine yeastiness and a citrus-peel snap on the finish. A wine that keeps setting up an expectation and then cheerfully declining to meet it.