2016 Razorback Vineyard Pinot Noir

The 2016 Vintage was another drought year, with early bud-break, bloom and veraison. Poor weather during the early bloom caused shatter and millerandage. Vine stress became an issue late in the year with many of our dry farmed vines showing water and nutrient stress for the first time. The resulting wines are bright and energetic with mid-weight personalities. These are profoundly aromatic and balanced wines that are site expressive and pure.

"The 2016 Pinot Noir Razorback Vineyard is marked by expressive tobacco and earthy notes that give the wine its distinctive signatures. Powerful, broad and ample on the palate, the 2016 is one of the bigger wines in the range." - Antonio Galloni, Vinous 91 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. Featuring a cool northeastern exposure, this 2 acre hillside is planted to four clones (115, 667, 777 and Swan) of Pinot Noir on fractured sandstone and shale. We ferment the clones together as we believe this encourages more complexity and intrigue in the finished wine. This rather steep vineyard is dry farmed and gets some of the cooling fog that settles below our other Estate vineyards. 2011 is the first vintage we have chosen to bottle as a stand alone, single-vineyard wine.