HARVESTED: August 29th-September 24th, 2014
VINEYARD LOCATION: Portola Valley, Saratoga, La Honda on either clay or sandy loam soils.
BOTTLED: December, 2015
COMPOSITION: 100% Pinot Noir (Dijon clones 114, 115, 117, 666, 667, 777)
ALCOHOL: 13.4%
PRODUCTION: 750 cases
WINEMAKER: Colin McNany
NAME: ‘sequence’ of vineyards’ along Skyline, and part of SIlicon Valley’s vines/science heritage.
VINTAGE NOTES
In our third straight year of a record breaking drought, bud break began early due to the lack of groundwater available for the vines. High winds during flowering, in combination with drought, reduced the amount of crop / fruit set. However, the rest of the growing season was warm and even, allowing us to carefully harvest at ideal time frames. As yields were slightly down, quality remained incredible, potentially surpassing the last 2 vintages. The August 4th start of harvest in the Santa Cruz Mountains was the earliest in the 70 years of recorded history at Mount Eden.
WINEMAKING NOTES
We harvest our Pinot Noir sequentially with co-fermentation in mind, filling open top tanks and T-bins with vineyards matching fruit profiles. This year we experimented with 10% of the entire lot fermented whole cluster, providing extra structure and tannin. The rest of the vineyards were destemmed whole berry, and hand sorted on the shaker table. It is then tipped into 2 ton open top tanks and 1 ton bins. Then cold soaking to enhance flavor and color, roughly 3-5 days, followed by inoculation of commercial yeast strains. The ferments are punched down by hand 3 times a day with peak fermentation temps hitting roughly 90 degrees F. The wine is left on skins for a total of 20-25 days via extended maceration. We press on taste, separating free run and basket pressed wine into designated French and Hungarian barrels, which ⅓ are new. The wine undergoes 100% native malolactic and aged for 14 months. Unfined and unfiltered, always.
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TASTING NOTES
Beautiful bright red fruits; elegant aromatics of pomegranate blueberry and earthtones of strawberry rhubarb pie. Medium acid with juicy rose petals, cherry cola, and dark cacao nib tannin.
CELLARING
Recommend aging potential is 3-7 years.