Wine Notes

Pinot Noir

See our notes from a recent vertical tasting of Reserve Pinot Noir (1994-2003).

No wine is harder to grow than Pinot noir. You notice the "grow." What happens in the vineyard is almost everything with Pinot noir, with a cool climate critical, vineyard site and vintage almost equivalent in impact and other "nurture" activities in the winery merely safekeeping. No grape more sensitively reflects how it is grown and treated than Pinot noir.

We think we have exceptional vineyard sites. Our energy goes into helping vines reach perfect balance on each site, seeking uniform growth and yields that fully reflect the complexity and lush beauty that is Pinot noir. In the winery our style is restrained, intervening as little as possible and, then, as gently as possible. Because as any Pinot noir maker knows, if you make the right long-term decisions and luck out weather-wise, you can still screw-up in the winery.

Philosophically, we believe in fully ripe fruit and a moderately extractive style, finished with only a moderate amount of new oak. We use our own fruit exclusively, harvest to taste and balance in the vineyard Weighing Pinot noir grapes (based on flavors, physical cues and site history--using numbers from analytical tools as confirmation only, although being inherently technocrats), and precisely control certain variables in fermentation—e.g., temperature—while using a diverse mix of other variables for complexity—e.g., yeast, coopers, oak forest, vineyard sites and clonal mixes. We've done experimentation like nerds, continue to "play" each year with a little fruit, and collect data and anecdotes continually.

Winemaking is a tough job. Not because there is too much to do, but because it is difficult to sit back and do nothing, letting the grapes and vineyard decisions project purely in the final wine. It's hard not to mess around with the fruit and potentially screw it up, trying to force-fit it into a personal style we have presumptively chosen for it. Our conviction is that we should develop processes that allow the fruit's potential to show through, not develop a wine that is heavy-handed technologically. Transparent winemaking.

Food & Wine, August 2003, Lettie Teague
"Wine Matters-Pinot Noir: The World's Sexiest Grape."

I'm not one for making predictions... but when I was recently asked what grape I thought might take over the world, I answered: "Pinot Noir." Though even its fans describe it in such unflattering terms as temperamental, time-consuming and expensive—the proverbial date from hell—this famed red grape of France's Burgundy region is being planted by more and more wine producers all over the world....