2018 Four Brothers Vineyard Pinot Noir

$50.00

This is a truly unique wine with deep dense fruits of plum and black cherry.  Slightly pressed rose petals and spice add to the evolving nose.  The wine has an incredibly intense minerality that dances on the palate and mixes with the bright acidity.  This wine has a beautiful balance.  The wine finishes clean and pure without any lingering heat or astringency or anything out of place.   I’m so excited about this wine now and can’t wait to see how it evolves over the years. 

Cases Produced:

175 Cases

Harvest Date:

September 14th, 2018

Fermentation and Aging:

Destemmed to tank with 50% whole cluster added.  Cold Soaked for 6 days before native fermentation for 14 days in tank.  The free run was drained and transferred to barrel after settling in tank overnight.  French Oak (25% new).  Malolactic occurred naturally in barrel with nothing added.  The wine was aged for 15 months on lees and racked gently before bottling.  Bottled without fining or filtering.

Chemistry:

pH:  3.68
TA:   6.0
Alc:  13.5%
RS:   dry: 0.01 % 

Soils:

The majority of the rock in Bennett Valley is volcanic basalt.  The soil series is called Spreckels clay loam and they have been formed from the ancient Sonoma Mountain volcano.  The eons of weathering has left the vineyard packed full of small fragmented rocks throughout the soil and which give the wine its uncommon minerality.  The vineyard is located at 900ft elevation and on a steep North-East facing hillside.  Lot of sunshine and steady cool breezes every afternoon is the norm during the growing season which allows the Pinot Noir to ripen slowly and maintain great natural acidity.

Clones:

The clones for the very steep 6 acre parcel of Pinot Noir which was planted in 2001 by our winemaker, Patrick Sullivan on his family’s ranch.  It is a mixture of clone 777 along with a suitcase clone from Vosne Romanee.   The clones were originally planted as a field blend in the vineyard and were picked and fermented together.