A vineyard we know and love. This vintage sees a dramatic shift in style, with more emphasis on whole-cluster fermentation and select oak barrel regimin. I’ve always thought this wine is the closest thing texturally to Sonoma - plush, silk, cherry cola. To accentuate this we use the cooperage Cadus which tends to flush out the mid-palate. The whole-cluster fermentation is much cooler and gives a nice structure to the wine.
Located in the northern Santa Lucia Highlands AVA in Monterey County, planted on decomposed granite Escolle Vineyard Pinot Noir is perhaps the most “classic” of our Central Coast Pinot Noir vineyards. It is always full of fresh red fruits, extremely aromatic, and seamless on the palate.
Grape harvesting was split between two different days. Each lot was separately handpicked and sorted, after which each were fully destemmed. They underwent 4 days of cold maceration followed by 14 days of fermentation using wild yeasts and bacteria. A mixture of pump-overs and punch-downs were used for cap management. The wine was drained and pressed, then barreled down to a mixture of 30% new 228L French barriques. The wine was aged for 4 months, after which it was racked in the spring, followed by an additional 14 months of barrel aging. The wine was bottled in the spring of 2026 unfined and unfiltered.
