Nose
The intriguing nose is driven by boysenberry and
cherry, with accents of lavender and
caramelized sugar.
Palate
Incredibly layered
with red currant, black cherry, and
raspberry flavors on top and intense
minerality underneath. Vibrant and
focused, the fresh fruit and mineral go on
and on through the finish.
Growing Conditions
The 2012 vintage marks the third release of East Slope Pinot Noir, as we made
the difficult decision not to bottle an East Slope in the 2011 vintage. Grown
on a portion of our east-sloping 1-90 vineyard block at the Donum Ranch and
planted to the Calera clone, knowledge of our beautiful topography allowed us
to identify a distinctive unit of vineyard.
Bathed in morning sunlight, East Slope is one of our cooler sites, and the Calera
heritage selection of Pinot Noir thrives there. Prone to uneven set and mixed large
and small berries ("hens and chicks"), the East Slope is far from a copy of our West
Slope, instead representing a more elegant and ethereal counterweight to the
concentration and focus displayed by the West Slope.
Harvest
The season unfolded event-free, with normal budbreak, and good winter rains to fill the soil profile,
giving us the resources for a promising season. Strong and even shoot growth is one of the benchmarks
for a good season. Flowering occurred late in May, which is very normal, indicating we would pick in late
September. Temperatures at flowering were mild, leading to a healthy fruit set. Most of the summer
months continued with mild weather, allowing for less stress on the vines and causing a slightly larger
berry size than normal, which is one of the reasons 2012 was so bountiful.
The season continued quite perfectly for us growers, with no untimely weather occurrences; overall it
was a mild to cooler season. September saw a few days of heat, which helped to push harvest into gear.
And happily, harvest continued over the course of weeks, allowing us to focus on each of our vineyards,
and blocks, picking them at peak maturity. After the stress of 2011 this was a wonderful gift. All our fruit
was harvested before the first Fall rains visited the valley in mid-October.
Bottling
The East Slope bottling is a true single-block designate, and with such a small block there isn’t much
room for blending, as we only ever get one lot from the vineyard. Thus our job is simply to taste all the
barrels and make sure they are up to standard; thanks to the beautiful 2012 vintage, each of our six
barrels was wonderful, and they were blended and bottled in February 2014.
Winemaking
Our Calera block was hand- harvested early on the morning of October 8th, fully destemmed, and put
to tank for cold soak. Although we harvest our Calera block around the same time as the rest of the
Donum ranch, it always comes in at lower sugar levels due to its eastern exposure. For this reason we
treat it more gently during fermentation, with two long pumpovers a day, and very few punchdowns.
This results in a lighter framed wine, highlighted by floral and earthy components as opposed to ripe fruit
and tannin. The wine was pressed just after dryness, as opposed to allowing extended time on the skins,
once again to highlight its delicacy. The free run went to a blend of new and French oak, and underwent
malolactic fermentation in barrel.
Appearance
The 2012 East Slope is deep garnet in color.
