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Nearly 10 years past harvest, this wine is lively, focused, and balanced, retaining a strict structure which supports a lovely and undulating array of flavors and bouquet. A choice selection from the cellar.
About the Vineyard...
This Pinot Noir is a blend of two very similar vineyards situated near the Napa-Sonoma county line at the southern end of the Carneros appellation. Both vineyards, Domaine Chandon #105 and the Ferguson Ranch, were planted in 1973, and both are austere sites with lean soils and low vigor. The similarity of site, rootstock (both are St. George - 8X12 spacing), clone (old Martini selection), and vine age ensure a commonality between the wines. These vines were 28 years old when we picked this fruit, a rarity for California Pinot Noir vines as a good bit of the early plantings had long before succumbed to phylloxera or virus.
About the Vintage...
1999 was a cool vintage, following the El Nino year of 1998. Fruit ripening was very slow, resulting in one of the latest vintage we had yet seen--later, in fact, than Burgundy's of the same year. As we worried, the grapes responded by developing darker skin pigmentation, and more layered flavors. Flavors were great several weeks before harvest. A blast of dry heat during the last week of September finally sent sugars soaring to ripeness. We picked all our vineyards in the shortest window of time we had seen.
About the Wine...
The grapes were 100% destemmed into an open top fermenter and cold soaked for 4 days. We punched down by hand 4 times per day at the beginning of fermentation. This was decreased to 2 times per day by the end of fermentation. A small innoculum of RC212 (burgundy isolate) cultured yeasts carried out the fermentation. We employed a very warm fermentation, peaking at 95°F. The wine was gently pressed at dryness and went directly to barrel. The wine was aged entirely in French oak from the coopers Francois Freres, Cadus, and Billon - 38% new. The wine was racked once prior to bottling. Wine movements were made by pushing with inert gas all the way until bottling. Wine analysis: Alc. 13.8 %, pH 3.66, ta 6.2 g/l. , r.s. 0.01 g/l. 975 cases produced.
Tasting Notes...
Deep garnet color. Intense aromas of spice, coffee, cocoa/chocolate, rich blackberry and dried blueberry fruit with earthy nuances. The palate is full and velvety in texture, bursting with blackberry/cherry fruit, anise, orange zest chocolate, and coffee. The finish is long and focused with lingering dried fruit and velvety tannins. At release, we praised the underlying tannic structures of this wine and predicted that it would age for 5-7 years. Nearly 10 years past harvest, this wine is lively, focused, and balanced, retaining a strict structure which supports a lovely and undulating array of flavors and bouquet. A choice selection from the cellar.
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