2017 North Coast Pinot Noir

Description

Tasting Notes

The North Coast Pinot Noir is a beautiful ruby red color. It initially exhibits vibrant aromas of rose petal, blueberry, strawberry and raspberry. With time, complex flavors of wild mushrooms, almonds, black tea and cedar are revealed. The wine exudes a bright elegant structure with a velvety softness. The fabulous flavors seem to linger forever in the finish. The wine is a very nice on its own or with food.  Drink now or age for 10-15 years.

Winemaking

Roughly 55% of the grapes came from the Anderson Valley AVA, 35% from the Coombsville AVA and 10% from the Sonoma Coast AVA.  Just over 60% of the blend was from Pommard Clone with remainder from Dijon 777, Dijon 115 and Swan.

The grapes were harvested in the early morning to make use of nature to keep the  grapes cool.  About 90% of the grapes were destemmed into open top fermentation bins as whole berries with the remaining 10% put directly into the fermentation bins as whole clusters, stems and all. The fermentations were punched down twice a day. Upon completion of fermentation, the wines were pressed and immediately put into previously used French oak barrels for aging.  The wines were topped monthly and racked once during 10 months of aging.

North Coast AVA

The North Coast AVA is north of San Francisco and includes vineyard areas within the counties of Lake, Marin, Mendocino Napa, Solano and Sonoma.  The climate of this large growing region is characterized by fog and cool breezes from the Pacific Ocean.