Description

Our Pinot Noirs tend to reach “full maturity” around the age of 18-25. They do however ‘turn their first corner’ as we think about it, at the age of 10-12. This is the point at which they come out of the shell and display their full potential.

The 2012 is one of the more powerful, concentrated vintages of our Home Vineyard.

 About the terroir: Our 2-1/2 acre “Home Vineyard” is north-east facing, at 1530-1600 ft altitude. The top soil is alluvial clay-loam on fractured volcanic rocks subsoil. Untypically to this area, which tends to be steep and extremely rocky, this site is gently sloped and with few rocks to be found. It is also unusually cool in the context of the Sierra Foothills region, providing the required climatic conditions for successful Pinot production. The vineyard was planted (own-rooted, 3×6′ spacing) in 1979/80 and 1999, using as many clones – known and unknown – as we could lay our hands on, plus a handful of Pinot Gris and Chardonnay vines just for fun.  .

Vintage specifics: Spring and summer were warm, but not especially hot, with a few heat spikes in June, July, and August. Bud-break began on April 19, bloom on May 31, and verasion in early August.  Harvest started on August 29th, and continued in sequential passes through the vines until September 24th, with sugars at ~22.8 Brix in average. The grapes were whole-cluster stomped in open-top fermenters, where un-inoculated, sulfite-free fermentations took place on 100% of the stems. Pressed after 7-14 day macerations into 10-18 year old barrels. Aged on the primary lees until the bottling day (8/25/14). Bottled by gravity unfined/unfiltered.