The Harvest
Vintage 2001 is with out a doubt my favorite vintage to date for Arcadian. This being our first vintage from this exciting new site we were delighted to be working directly with Jeff Newton and Kathy Joseph in the execution of managing the vineyard. We seem to match well in levels of intensity and share the same goals for this site.

Fiddlestix Block 1 was planted in 1998 and Block 2 in 1999. Both Blocks are comprised of clay loam soils from the Botella and Gazos series but there is a fair amount of chirt and Monterey shale that aid in drainage. Block 1 is planted to a vine density of 1361 plants on 4 X 8 spacing. Block 2 is planted to 1556 plants per acre on 4 X 7 spacing. The trellis is a vertical shoot positioning with 3 sets of double catch wires.

Harvest began on September 17th for clone 115 and clone 4 in Block 2 and September 19th for clone 113 and 114 in Blocks 1 and 2. Both blocks produced delightful fruit with very little triage required and excellent seed and stem ripeness. Although we conducted a second triage de table we were able to submit close to 90% as whole cluster for fermentation. Crop loads were low at 25 hectoliters per hectare (1.75 tons per acre) but skins were thick and acids were perfect with beautiful balance and pH was amazingly low.

The Cuvee
As a winegrower I am interested primarily in growing the best possible fruit we can to achieve world-class wines. To that end we are highly selective in the barrels that make the final cut for the vineyard-designated wines. We are also concerned that the high cost of farming to these small yields is matched by the high quality of the wines we release. This stringent method of protecting each individual lieu-dit insures that what we have bottled from Fiddlestix is the very best from that site. In this case we were impressed with the tiny compact berries and their consistent high quality. No barrels were declassified and all barrels including press wine were used in this bottling.

The Production
My fascination with the great wines of Burgundy has taken me down the path of artisan style winemaking. Choosing to rely not only on modern science but my own gut instinct as to how to allow the fruit to develop into the wine that Mother Nature had intended. I have listened to and emulated those Burgundian artisans I most admired, employing their traditional techniques to bring forth the uniqueness of these particular rows within these two vineyards.

The grapes undergo a tremendous amount of triage (sorting) both in the vineyard and in the cellar. I consider this to be one of the most significant practices we employ. We can truly say only the best grapes go into our fermenters. Once they are received into the cellar we subject them to another sorting on the table and then into the fermenters. This whole cluster fermentation technique we believe contributes significantly to the aromatics and texture of our wines. It is the gentlest manipulation of Pinot Noir grapes possible. Once in the fermenters we cover the cap in dry ice to arrest any spontaneous fermentation that may occur. We prefer a pre fermentation maceration (cold-soaking) allowing the color and flavor to be extracted in the absence of fermentation for two or three days. During this time we pigeage (foot tread) twice a day increasing to five times a day at peak fermentation. The wine is usually pressed of at 1 or 2 brix into François Freres barrels from the Allier forest in the center of France. The wine will remain in barrel for 18 to 22 months without racking and will be bottled without fining or filtration. This wine received an additional six months of bottle ageing before release.