The 2019 The Loch is popping with fruit aromatics, offering stunning layers of tart cherry, cranberry, and ripe raspberry, heart notes of cardamom and potpourri, and bass notes of Bing cherry and leather. Equally complex and energetic on the palate, it reveals a velvety texture that carries the flavors to a creamy, luxurious finish that is profoundly satisfying.
The grapes were hand-harvested and gently destemmed into small one-ton fermenters to preserve the style of each vineyard and clone. After a three-day cold soak, fermentation began and lasted about three weeks. The wines were then put straight into French oak barrels as free run. After 10 months of aging in 5% new and 40% one-year-old oak, we blended The Loch. It was aged in eighteen barrels: 100% one-year-old for another six months until The Loch was deemed aged to perfection and was bottled on February 26th, 2021.
2019 was a nearly ideal winegrowing season. There was just the right amount of heat early in the growing season to acclimate the grapes, and mild temperatures continued throughout the season and offered superior flavor development. The grapes for our 2019 The Loch came from many of the sources for our single vineyard offerings. Olivet Lane, Rodgers Creek, Gap’s Crown, Sangiacomo Fedrick, Wildcat Mountain, and the Dutton Manzana Vineyard are all represented. All grapes were lovingly hand harvested between September 9th and October 1st, 2019.
Combining decades of winemaking mastery with our long history on the Sonoma Coast, The Loch is our consummate Pinot Noir blend, artfully crafted from our best blocks and barrels of wine. “Our goal is simple, but not easy,” says Winemaker Heidi Bridenhagen. “We search our cellar for our most beautiful wines of the vintage—stirring wines that sing on the palate. Then we begin blending.” Like a secret code unlocked by our winemakers, The Loch embodies everything that we know about making great Pinot Noir. We named our pinnacle Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blends The Loch and The Key, both as a nod to our founder Steve MacRostie’s Scottish heritage and to his early experiences as a U.S. Army cryptographer in Europe.
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