Tasting
notes at release: October 1999
This wine comes from two vineyards planted side by side in the year
I first began here, 1981. One is modern, linear, and trellised; the
other is old-fashioned, organic, and untrellised. A study in
contrasts for sure, yet both yielded remarkable fruit in 1997.
This is a year where everything ripened fully, evenly, and early
with the grape skins, acidities and flavors close to greenhouse
perfection. Fermented in small open-top fermentors with the natural
yeasts and manipulated totally by hand without pumps, the new wine
was aged twenty months in Burgundy barrels and was bottled unfined
and unfiltered. This is a pure statement of our vineyard, nothing
more or less. Prime drinkability from two to seven years given
proper storage.
Connoisseurs' Guide February 2000
Rating:
"Well-defined, ripe-cherry fruit and nicely integrated oak mark this
successful effort, and the wine sports supple, slightly velvety feel
of top-shelf Pinot. Rich without being the least bit heavy, and
nicely firmed by the proper bit of tannin, it can be enjoyed in the
near term, but show every sign of improving with three to five years
of cellaring."
Tasting
notes at release: October 1999
