Dark garnet in color, the nose is layered with red cherry and cinnamon spice. The palate is dominated with cocoa and leather giving this wine a strong mid-palate and a lengthy finish.
The fruit was gently destemmed into small open-top fermentors, 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. The fruit, clone 115 from Arrow Block, is an early ripening Dijon clone that added lively fruit aromatics. The pommard from Hill block introduced structure and acidity. After 12 months of aging in exclusively French oak barrels, of which, 43% were new. We bottled in October of 2014.
13 had ideal temperatures and growing conditions. The fruit came to the door healthy, ripe, and luscious. The grapes that made the Wildcat Mountain wine came from Arrow block and Hill block which were planted in 2002. The fruit was hand harvested in the cool early morning on September 10th, 2013.
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.