  VINEYARD Appellation: Monterey Fine river silt mixed with sand and gravel Vine age: 35 years old PRODUCTION 98 cases of 750 ml HARVEST Harvest date: early October of 2009 WINEMAKING Hand harvested grapes — 100 % destemmed but not crushed. Fermented in T-Bins. Cap manually punched down twice a day during fermentation. Minimal cold soak and 12 days total average cuvaison. Aged an average of 18 months in French oak barrels: 25% new oak from Tonnellerie Rousseau. Bottled unfined and unfiltered on June 2nd of 2009. Released July, 2009. WINEMAKERS TASTING NOTES AND COMMENTS
Like a mouthful of cherry pie, this jammy old-vine Pinot Noir is redolent of ripe Bing cherries, with brown sugar and pie-crust notes from judicious new French oak barrel age (Rousseau “Allegro”). Offering immediate pleasure, the wine is plump, juicy and soft, yet remarkably complex: a result of sustainably farmed, balanced older vines rooted deep into the silt, sand and gravel soils of the Salinas River Valley of Monterey. |