Nose
pure Bing cherry, red raspberry and blueberry fruit with intriguing hints of violets and cinnamon.
Palate
Beautifully balanced on the palate, it boasts plush cherry, blackberry, blueberry and plum flavors, finely textured tannins, and a long finish bursting with black cherry and tea-leaf spice notes.
Growing Conditions
Growing conditions in 2012 were ideal, with consistently mild summer weather free of rain or significant heat waves. This allowed for even, uninterrupted ripening and the opportunity to pick our Carneros pinot noir grapes at peak ripeness. The fruit was harvested between September 4th and 20th with a perfect balance of sugar and acidity.
Winemaking
Night harvesting our Carneros pinot noir grapes ensures we fully capture the variety’s fresh acidity, ethereal aromas and silky flavors. Our winemaking regimen with pinot noir includes gentle handling of the fruit, fermentation in small stainless steel fermenters, and gentle pumpovers to thoroughly macerate juice and skins. We blend the barrel-aged component wines of our pinot noir after three months to fully integrate flavors and tannins, then age the blended wine another four to eight months in French Burgundian oak barrels (40% new in 2012) selected specifically to highlight the unique character of our Carneros fruit. The 2012 vintage aged for a total of seven months in barrel before being bottled in May, 2013.
Aging
7 months in French oak barrels, 40% new
