winemaking

The fruit was carefully hand sorted, destemmed, optically sorted with high whole berry content. After cold soaking for 4 days, they were fermented for 12 days with the maximum temperature of 84 degrees in an open top tank with the emphasis being gentle, followed by two weeks of maceration. The malolactic fermentation took place in the barrel. The wines were racked once and bottled in August of 2018.

tasting notes

As usual, this cool site Russian River Valley Pinot Noir shows its live, focused intensity despite its ripe and mature fruit. The quality of fruit is so easily evident in its high intensity. Back in 2017, Dave suggested we try a different block of fruit, a block of 777 clone he liked very much. This block usually yields less fruit due to its slope so the finished wine is a bit intense even by its standards. The nose is of forest floor, raspberry liqueur, tea, spice and toast. In the barrel, it was full, ripe and viscous. The fruit is ripe but its acidity and oak hold back its full band of flavors. It is a spicy, layered, intense Pinot like the 2016 version but even more so. We believe this should easily be another long lived, 8-10 years.