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ORIGIN:
The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. Here, the vines dig into the sparse volcanic soil and stand firm against the strong winds that race in off of the Pacific Ocean most afternoons. This fog-shrouded mountaintop vineyard is a classic Sonoma Coast site, cool and challenging, and produces wines of great distinction.
VINEYARD NOTES:
The 2005 growing season was nicely extended, with the weather remaining quite cool all the way through a rather late, almost leisurely harvest. Yields were customarily low at Wildcat, just a little over two tons per acre, resulting in fruit of intense flavor. The berries were on the small side, which led to excellent color development. All of the Wildcat Pinot was hand-harvested in two busy days, on September 23 and 24.
WINEMAKING NOTES:
The fruit was gently destemmed into open-top fermenters. The cap was managed with a combination of punchdowns and pumpovers to maximize positive extraction, and the must was pressed at dryness, with only the free-run wine going into the Wildcat blend. In fact, only a small selection of the finest barrels of wine from our Pommard and Dijon 667 clonal blocks were selected for this vintage of Wildcat Mountain Pinot Noir, with the rest of our high-quality Wildcat Pinot going into our Carneros Pinot Noir blend. After 10 months of ageing exclusively in French oak barrels, 30 percent of which were new, the wine was bottled on August 17, 2006.
TASTING NOTES:
From its dark, dense garnet color, to its multifaceted aromas of roasted cranberry and espresso—with just a hint of cola, this is a rich and expressive Pinot Noir. Full and satisfying in the mouth, it delivers a veritable explosion of ripe black cherry and baking chocolate flavors, all wrapped in subtle, but notable toasty oak. With nice structure and a complex, persistent finish, this is a wine that should age very well.
This vintage produced 1600 ( 750 ml ) 6-bottle cases.
The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. Here, the vines dig into the sparse volcanic soil and stand firm against the strong winds that race in off of the Pacific Ocean most afternoons. This fog-shrouded mountaintop vineyard is a classic Sonoma Coast site, cool and challenging, and produces wines of great distinction.
VINEYARD NOTES:
The 2005 growing season was nicely extended, with the weather remaining quite cool all the way through a rather late, almost leisurely harvest. Yields were customarily low at Wildcat, just a little over two tons per acre, resulting in fruit of intense flavor. The berries were on the small side, which led to excellent color development. All of the Wildcat Pinot was hand-harvested in two busy days, on September 23 and 24.
WINEMAKING NOTES:
The fruit was gently destemmed into open-top fermenters. The cap was managed with a combination of punchdowns and pumpovers to maximize positive extraction, and the must was pressed at dryness, with only the free-run wine going into the Wildcat blend. In fact, only a small selection of the finest barrels of wine from our Pommard and Dijon 667 clonal blocks were selected for this vintage of Wildcat Mountain Pinot Noir, with the rest of our high-quality Wildcat Pinot going into our Carneros Pinot Noir blend. After 10 months of ageing exclusively in French oak barrels, 30 percent of which were new, the wine was bottled on August 17, 2006.
TASTING NOTES:
From its dark, dense garnet color, to its multifaceted aromas of roasted cranberry and espresso—with just a hint of cola, this is a rich and expressive Pinot Noir. Full and satisfying in the mouth, it delivers a veritable explosion of ripe black cherry and baking chocolate flavors, all wrapped in subtle, but notable toasty oak. With nice structure and a complex, persistent finish, this is a wine that should age very well.
This vintage produced 1600 ( 750 ml ) 6-bottle cases.