The Cliff Notes: A ripe, flowing, unified red exhibiting cherry, peach cobbler, kirchwasser, grilled meat and licorice. Moving and massive with a nice edge, it’s faithful to the variety without holes or bumps. It’s not Syrah-esque. It’s not what could be termed “Merlot noir”. It’s Pinot noir…and the wee ones had better go home.

Cases Produced: 975

Vintage: 2006 was the second warmest growing year on record with a good size crop that all came in at once. The given was “ripe” and the challenge was finding balance without succumbing to the dilution of over-cropping or the raisin flavors, and high alcohols, of over-ripeness. We green-dropped a lot of clusters to concentrate flavors and made some of our earliest picking decisions to date to retain acid and elegance. The wines are big, reflective of 2006. They are supple and age-able and elegant, but above all, they are recognizable as classic Pinot noir, from our winery, from our vineyards. We walked the knife-edge and hit our marks.

The building of: Small-lot wild yeast fermentations, 100% barrel aged for 18 months, 22% new/8% one year/20% two year/50% neutral. Bottled unfined and unfiltered in March of 2007.

Ageability: This wine is big, but balanced in its fruit/acid/tannin relationships. We absolutely recommend that you consider decanting to get it some air within its first three years. We expect it to climb in complexity through a minimum of five years and likely double that before the curtains start to close.

Alcohol: 13.75%

pH: 3.61

Vineyards: Temperance Hill (27 years) brought old-vine complexity, Shea Vineyard (9 years) ripe dark fruit, Eola Hills (8 years) centrist cherry, Anderson Family Vineyard (16 years) structure, Gemini Vineyard (15 years) moving red and Momtazi (8 years) hi-tone spice.