Nose
fresh, fragrant aromas of ripe black cherry, raspberry and rose petal with background hints of sandalwood and oak toast.
Palate
Rich and vibrant on the palate, its succulent Bing cherry, wild berry and plum fruit leads to a long, flavorful finish featuring enticing cherry, spice and mineral tones.
Growing Conditions
2014 was another fine vintage in Anderson Valley. The growing season featured a warm, dry spring that initiated early budbreak and led to a consistently mild summer characterized by cool, foggy mornings, warm afternoons and cool evenings. These conditions resulted in grapes with an ideal balance of ripe fruit flavors and bright, lively acidity.
Winemaking
We hand-harvest our Anderson Valley pinot noir grapes at night to preserve their freshness and varietal intensity, keeping fruit from distinctive blocks of vines separate. These individual lots are cold-soaked for early extraction of color and flavor, then fermented in small, open-top tanks. Native yeast from the vineyards spontaneously initiate the fermentations, which are sustained by inoculating the fermenting wine with a cultured yeast strain. Gentle punchdowns of the cap of skins at the top of the tanks extract each lot’s singular aromas and flavors. Once fermentation completes, the free run juice from each lot is drained from the skins and transferred to French oak barrels (38% new in 2014), where they age for three months before the most expressive lots are blended. The blended wine ages another seven months in barrel prior to bottling.
Aging
10 months in French oak barrels, 38% new
