Nose
Nose of dark berries, briar, and more earthiness than we typically see from the Russian River.
Palate
The palate is loaded with dark cherry, berry, and plum flavors, yet the impression is very dry,
with no overt fruitiness. Rich, intense, and very complex, the layers of fruit continue to
evolve on the finish.
Growing Conditions
Our Russian River Estate Pinot Noir comes from the Winside vineyard, planted in 1997 by Anne
Moller-Racke and Joe Nugent. The natural variations in soil across the vineyard, along with the
blend of Dijon and heritage clones, results in a complex wine, with richness from the 667 and
elegance and finesse from the Pommard and Calera clones. Fog from the Pacific generally
recedes fairly early in the day resulting in plenty of sun, but prevailing winds from the west
keep this site cooler in the afternoon, allowing for extended hang time. Starting in 2012 we
began to include some fruit from the Pommard block in the estate blend.
Harvest
By 2015 California was well into its five-year drought, and we saw essentially no rain during the summer
and fall. Following the trend of 2014, budbreak was very early, and the season was well underway by
mid-March. Growers were fortunate with similar conditions in 2014, but in 2015 our luck ran out and
the early flowering in April coincided with some very unsettled weather. Seesawing temperatures, high
winds, and abrupt changes from foggy and cloudy to sunny and calm were frequent for nearly six weeks.
These wild swings led to shatter as flowering was interrupted, and some vineyards saw crops reduced by
as much as 75%. At Donum we were relatively fortunate, averaging only about 20% loss across all
blocks. This weather gave way to a fairly mild and even summer until August, when heat spikes returned
and we saw several spikes in which temperatures approached triple digits. This can lead to some difficult
picking decisions, as it is always risky to leave crop that is almost ripe hanging through such extreme heat.
Once again we were perhaps more fortunate than some of our colleagues, and our ripening schedule
lined-up such that we were able to harvest some blocks just before each heat spike, while the rest were
able to hang through the heat. Overall the quality was very high in 2015, and the wines have plenty of
structure indicating they should age well.
Bottling
The final blend was assembled and bottled in January 2017.
Winemaking
The Russian River Estate Pinot Noir was blended from 4 different lots, two of 667 and two of Pommard
clone. Each was treated slightly differently in the cellar, but in general went through a cold-soak of
approximately 5 days, and then a long, slow fermentation lasting up to two weeks, during with the cap
was punched down three times daily. A small percentage of the blend was fermented in a small,
egg-shaped wooden fermenter, which provides extra richness and intensity.
Aging
All lots underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel, and then rested on lees until final blending about a year later.
Appearance
Deep ruby in color, verging on purple.
