2021 Razorback Vineyard Pinot Noir

The 2021 vintage was a welcome change from the catastrophe of 2020. Harvest began in Pinot Noir in early September, which is an historically average starting date. Sugar and acidity levels tracked well and while the crop size was shorter than we would prefer, we were able to harvest perfectly ripened fruit at a reasonable pace. The resulting wines have excellent balance and intensity. In our recent past there are some similarities to 2019 in that the wines possess great elegance and site specificity.

"The 2021 Pinot Noir Razorback Vineyard is a dark, brooding powerhouse. A blast of dark cherry, plum, gravel, incense, game and tobacco saturates the palate..." - Antonio Galloni, Vinous 94 points
Our winemaking is focused on allowing the unique signature of each vineyard site to be expressed. We ferment all of our Pinot Noir in small lots of between one and two tons. We utilize varying percentages of whole bunches (approximately 25-50%), tailored to each site, and ferment the wines without the addition of yeast. Our maceration period lasts from 10-21 days, often including a short per-fermentation cold soak. We age our Pinot Noir in 3 year air dried French Oak, exclusively from the forest of Chatillon. The wines are pressed in a traditional basket press and allowed to settle before barrelling. The wines spend two winters in barrel and are racked only at bottling.
The Razorback Vineyard was planted in 1986 and is the lowest elevation vineyard on the Estate, at 1400 ft. With a cool northeastern exposure, this 2-acre hillside is planted with four clones (115, 667, 777 and Swan) of Pinot Noir on fractured sandstone and shale. We ferment the clones together to encourage complexity and intrigue in the finished wine. This rather steep vineyard is dry-farmed, receiving some of the cooling fog that settles below our other Estate vineyards. 2011 was the first vintage we chose to bottle as a stand-alone, single-vineyard wine.