2019 Starscape Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
In Stock
Wine Specs
Vintage
2019
Varietal
Pinot Noir
Appellation
Russian River Valley
Aging
19 months, 57% new French oak
Alcohol %
14.5
Wine Enthusiast
92
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
A lovely perfume of jasmine at first, then notes of dark plum, cranberry, rootbeer, mulchy forest floor and allspice. This wine is so interesting! Flavors of orange zest, dusty road and chocolate covered cherries grace the soft texture and wonderful mouthfeel of soft, fine-grained tannins.
Awards
Double Gold Medal N. Coast Wine Challenge
Vineyard Notes
Starscape Vineyard (previously named Floodgate and prior to that, Mark West Vineyard) is located on Trenton-Healdsburg Road on the southern end of an area known as the Middle Reach of the Russian River. The Middle Reach is arguably the most iconic area for Russian River Pinot noir. We source Dijon 777 and an old block of Pommard from a south-facing slope composed of Laniger loam soils. An East-facing slope is the home of a younger planting of Dijon 828, one of the more recent imports to California.
Production Notes
The slow ripening allowed us to pick all three clones September 22. We co-fermented them in a single fermenter utilizing our normal practice or including 25% of the grapes as a whole cluster component. Native yeast came to life after the grapes soaked for about one week. Punch downs were done a minimum of three times every day during the fermentation. After a post-fermentation maceration, we pressed the wine-laden skins, settled the wine overnight to remove the biggest solids, and aged the wine in French oak barrels where native bacteria completed the malolactic fermentation. Twenty-one months later we racked the wine out of the barrels and bottled it just for you! Nothing fancy – just straightforward, simple, honest winemaking. The less we do, the better the wine.
Production
14 barrels / 347 cases produced