2008 Central Coast Pinot Noir
Winemaker's Notes
Ripe Central Coast fruit offers a wonderfully perfumed nose of Bing cherries, rose petals and nutmeg. The bright cherry/strawberry nose, with a hint of truffle, spice, ripe plums, cardamom, toffee and cola, is classic to this vineyard site. Mouth watering flavors of cherries, raspberries, root beer, and toasted vanilla beans. Having worked with these vineyard blocks for 12 vintages, I find that the balanced acidity helps to carry the rich and round tannins through into a long finish.
—Winemaker Bob Cabral
The Vineyards
100% Estate Vista Verde Vineyard, located a couple miles southeast of Hollister, California, near the small town of Tres Pinos in San Benito County. This heavy limestone vineyard is separated into eight blocks that include clones such as Pommard, Calera, Canada, 115, 777, 828 and 943.
Harvest 2008
2008 provided very concentrated, flavorful and high quality wines that are vividly expressive of the vineyards in which they were grown, despite being a difficult year for growing. The combination of numerous springtime frosts and cold rains damaged our buds and clusters, thus resulting in a lighter than average year. During the summer, the vines encountered near-perfect fruit ripening weather characterized by warm and sunny days with exceptionally few heat spikes. Very warm August temperatures quickened ripening beginning a very early, fast and furious harvest. The decreased yields resulted in very concentrated and extremely high quality wines, with brilliant flavor and phenolic ripening. The wines of 2008 express their distinctive sites and qualities in a very intense and focused manner: this is truly a vintage for the cellars, with great ageing potential for years to come.
Technical Notes
| Barrel Description: | 35% new, 35% 1-year-old, 30% 2-year-old |
|---|---|
| Barrel Aged: | 11 months |
| pH: | 3.6 |
| TA: | 0.62g/100ml |
| Alc.: | 14.0% |
| Release Date: | Spring 2010 |
| Release Price: | $34 |