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2000 Stoller Vineyards Pinot Blanc

(updated 4/20/02)

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The Wine

This is our second commercially released Pinot blanc, continuing our appreciation of Alsace varietals. From our newest plantings at Stoller Vineyard, there is excellent ripeness and clean flavors. As we experiment for a process to make classic Alsace textured wines, we expect a purity of fruit and good weight on the palate from these early wines.

The Vineyard

Stoller Vineyards is our newest, and therefore most viticulturally advanced, of our three estate vineyards. A south-sloping, 100 acre vineyard on a 350 acre parcel, Stoller Vineyards commands a dominating view of the southern end of the Red Hills of Dundee, giving it regular comparison to Burgundy's Corton Hill. Stoller Vineyards is planted on jory soil, with a touch of Nekia, which are both red volcanic soil types. There is one acre of Pinot Blanc at the site.

The Vintage

Vintage 2000 was our third great vintage in-a-row, providing full ripeness and excellent weather throughout the growing season and through harvest. The average to one week early harvest, September 29-October 26, saw only 1.09 inches of rain. Fruit quantities were bountiful, permitting crop thinning to obtain ideal croploads of 2.50 tons/acre for Pinot gris, 2.55 for Chardonnay and 2.31 for Pinot noir. White wine characteristics are between 1998's round fleshiness and 1999's crisply structured ageability. Red wines benefit from less extreme extraction at Ridgecrest than the prior two vintages, thanks to normal croploads of 2.49 tons/acre and improved and excellent quality from the other vineyards. The average quality in the Pinot noir cellar exceeds 1999 and is similar to 1998.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested 10/7/2000 (Stoller Vineyard), from 3.7 tons per acre cropload

Fermentation:

Fermented with VL-3 and EC1118 yeasts

Cooperage/Aging:

Limited time in older oak barrels during fermentation

Clonal Selection:

Bottling:

cold stabilized and filtered, bottled 2/6/2002

Bottling Analyses:

15.6% alcohol, 5.3 g/l TA, 3.72 pH, 0.39% residual sugar

Cases Produced:

Suggested Retail:

$15

Release Date:

May, 2002

Winemaker's Comments

A big, rich wine, with green apple, custard and a spicy ginger on both nose and palate. It is blonde, cidery and maturely round, long and broad. Great weight and powerful intensity for a white wine. We're almost there, even though we'd like a little less alcohol.