2009 Pinot Noir

Robed in deep color, this Pinot Noir opens with the intense aromas of dark fruits – black cherries and plums – that echo on the palate. Wellintegrated acids bring a measure of vibrancy to the lush, fleshy texture, and fine-grained tannins lend structure into the smooth, lingering finish.

Winemaker Notes:

The 2009 harvest was interrupted in mid-October when a rare tropical storm—a blow-over from Typhoon Melor— soaked parts of the Central and Northern California vineyards. Nearly 4.4 inches of rain fell over 3 days. Fortunately, because we had finished harvesting all the white grape varieties and 91 percent of the reds, this vintage was spared. Pinot Noir presented a whirlwind harvest—-starting in early September—with virtually all the vineyards ripening at once. Like all other varieties, the Pinot Noir’s quality was superb. We picked the grapes for this wine from September 4 through September 24, 2009.

Each of the Napa Carneros vineyards represented in this wine yields small amounts of small Pinot Noir berries, contributing to the deeply saturated color. Los Carneros’ cool climate brings the clusters gently to optimum ripeness and allows the concentrated fruit characteristics of the Dijon clones to develop fully.

Clusters were gently hand-harvested in the cool morning hours to capture vivid flavors and natural balance. At the winery, a portion of the grapes went through whole-cluster fermentation while a balance of the fruit was de-stemmed and light crushed. The wine received an average of 21 days of maceration (skin contact) to soften the tannins and develop flavors prior to aging 7 months in French oak (30% new). The wine was bottled in May of 2010.