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2016 Wildcat Mountain Magnum

Pinot Noir
Sonoma Coast
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1.5L BOTTLE
MEMBER PRICE
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About this Wine

The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. There, 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.

1.5L Magnum

93 Points

“The 2016 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir is pale ruby-purple in color and scented of freshly crushed raspberries, wild strawberries and cranberries with hints of violets, fertile loam, underbrush and truffles. Medium-bodied with wonderful elegance and a beautiful quiet intensity, it has a solid frame of finely grained tannins and great freshness, finishing long.”
Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Wine Advocate , June 2018
Tasting Notes
Tasting Notes
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Accolades
Accolades
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Winemaking
Winemaking
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Vintage
Vintage
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Vineyard
Vineyard
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Tech. Notes
Tech. Notes
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additional notes
Tasting Notes

The 2016 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir has a purple hue with matching plum aromas. Ripe raspberry, along with hints of cedar and spice give this wine a lifted and luxurious aromatic presence. On the palate, the entry is soft and the rich, with a mouth-filling texture that enhances impressions of mulling spice and tobacco. Gentle tannins add to the long, flowing finish of this very complex Pinot.

Accolades
  • 93 Points: Lisa Perrotti-Brown Wine Advocate - June 2018
  • “The 2016 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir is pale ruby-purple in color and scented of freshly crushed raspberries, wild strawberries and cranberries with hints of violets, fertile loam, underbrush and truffles. Medium-bodied with wonderful elegance and a beautiful quiet intensity, it has a solid frame of finely grained tannins and great freshness, finishing long.”

  • 91 Points: Josh Greene Wine & Spirits - April 2019
  • “Meaty black-cherry flavors integrate with this wine’s smoky oak, the round, supple fruit winning out in the end. There’s an umami, ramen-broth character to the tannins, adding to the wine’s clean richness and nourishing feel. Steve MacRostie planted this vineyard in 1998, in the fog and wind of the Petaluma Gap.”

  • 90 Points: Virginie Boone Wine Enthusiast - February 2019
  • “This is a soft, delicate and lightly styled red from the appellation, earthy and quietly rich in caramelized oak and baked cherry. It has a nice balance of nutmeg and cola on the finish.”

Winemaking

The fruit was gently destemmed into small open-top fermenters, using state-of-the-art equipment and procedures to avoid any pumping of must. Inoculation with select yeast strains followed a three-day cold soak, and the caps were managed with a combination of pump-overs and punch-downs. Blending fruit from different areas of the vineyard and different clones gives this wine depth and complexity. The Pinot Noir from Arrow Block provides the lush tannin and adds lively fruit aromatics. Saddle Block is an area of the vineyard that is very exposed to the wind, which contributes dense color and a long finish. After 10 months of aging in French oak barrels, 30% new oak, and 32% one-year-old, we bottled the wine on August 17th, 2017.

Vintage

The 2016 vintage started out with an early bud break followed by a warm growing season. Just when we were about to start picking we had a cool spell in late August. This helped slow things down and spread out the harvest. The grapes for our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir came from a few different blocks of Wildcat Mountain. Clone 667 from the Arrow and Saddle blocks made up the majority of the blend, with a small amount being Pommard Clone 5. All of these grapes were hand harvested in the cool early mornings on different days from September 9th through September 22nd, 2016.

Vineyard

The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. There, 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.

Technical Notes
  • composition:

    100% Pinot Noir

  • alcohol: 14.10%
  • bottling date: 08/17/2017
  • aging:

    Aged 10 months in French oak

  • fermentation:

    Gently desteemed into open-top fermenters; three day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

additional notes
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