The Cliff Notes: Brilliant purple garnet with a dark dusty nose of Bing cherry, tobacco and green olive. A classically built Pinot noir of some heft showing condensed ripe cherry riding on a structurally significant core of acid and well-formed tannin. An elegant food wine, made more for time than for cocktail parties.
The Vintage: There are only a few places in the world where benchmark classic Pinot noir can be created. It requires long daylight, at least 110 days of grape hang-time, and a truly cool-climate growing region — Oregon, for example. In 2005, after a string of warm vintages, Oregon swung back to a cooler and more classic low-yielding vintage. We had to dance around a little rain at harvest, and more fruit would have been nice, but the grapes got what they needed. And subsequently, we got what we needed from the grapes: elegance.
Cases Produced: 735 cases
The Building of: Small-lot wild yeast fermentations, 100% barrel aged for 18 months: 9% new, 25% one-year, 47% two-year and 19% neutral oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered in April of 2006.
Ageability: This wine is built. The well structured core of acid and tannin will allow it to climb in complexity through a minimum of five years and should give it the ability to while away another five before it fades from the plateau.
Alcohol: 13.75%
pH: 3.64
Vineyards: It was important to be on your viticultural game in 2005 and, if so, the story became one of miniscule yields pushing up quality. The old vines at Temperance Hill (25 years) delivered phenomenal acidity and were aided by excellent ripeness from Shea Vineyard (8 years), beautiful red fruit from Gemini Vineyard (14 years), and just a touch of structure from Anderson Family Vineyard (14 years). In contrast to recent years, the blend was fairly clear cut, and we believe it speaks of classic beauty.
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