Nose
The nose catches you first with intense black cherry and blackberry that opens up to spice and bramble.
Palate
The mouth brings in all of this fruit with a full silky texture framed by a touch of sweet French oak. The spice gains momentum through the palate carrying into the bright finish of this complex Pinot Noir.
Growing Conditions
The growing season of 2016 got off to an early start with bloom just a few days later than the record early harvest of 2015. Mild weather through the summer allowed the grapes to ripen at a moderate rate developing deep intense character.
Main Clones: Clone 4, Colmar 538, Wente, Dijon 115, Pommard
Average Yields: 3 Tn/Acre
Harvest
As a result of the early spring, harvest came in early too, beginning a full2 1/2 weeks earlier than the average. Mild weather through the harvest brought the fruit in at a slow pace allowing us to handpick each block at optimal ripeness and get the fruit into the winery early in the day while it's still cold. The yields were average, a welcome development after the rollercoaster of record highs and lows of recent years. The fruit quality was excellent, and finishing up harvest two weeks early gave us more time to enjoy the rest of autumn.
Handpicked between August 17th, 2016 and September 7th, 2016
Bottling
July 2017
Winemaking
The Pinot Noir grapes, from individual vineyard lots, were gently hand harvested at night into small 30lb picking boxes in order to bring the fruit into the winery intact and cold. They were then destemmed, lightly crushed and cold-soaked in small fermentation tanks holding 3 to 10 tons each for two days to extract color and flavors. During fermentation the grape skins were punched down or wine was pumped over one to three times per day, determined by taste, to fine-tune the extraction of the skins. When optimal extraction was achieved after 10 days, the free run wine was promptly drained from the skins and seeds and transferred to barrels for aging. Only the free run wine was used in this blend. The wine rested in our barrel caves in French oak barrels (39% new) for 9 months before the wine was bottled in July of 2017.
Aging
100% French oak (39% new) for 9 months
Food Pairing
The intense combination of blackberry and blueberry on the nose are a match for grilled pork loin with blackberry sage sauce. The spice components of this pinot tie in well with chipotle, adobo and raspberry marinated flank steak or even ginger spiced blueberry shortcake. The bright acid stands up to firm textured cheeses like beaufort or appenzeller. Try blue cheeses Cabrales or Point Reyes Bay Blue with a drizzle of honey and spiced nuts complete a practically perfect pinot cheeseboard.
