The Vintage

Sometimes the quality of the vintage reveals itself from the very beginning. The aromas coming out of the fermenter are quite evolved early on and you recognize the resulting wine will be fantastic. 2001 was just such a vintage, despite a continuing drought. Spring was free of rain and set was quite good. The cluster weights were reduced giving a good skin to juice ratio. The summer remained rain free and normal weather patterns persisted. We began harvest at Gold Coast on September 27th.

Gold Coast Vineyard is located on Foxen Canyon Road six miles east of Santa Maria atop a bluff at Fulgar's Point. Nineteen acres of Pinot were planted in 1989 on 6 X 10 spacing trellised to a vertical shoot position. The scion wood is a Martini selection taken from Sierra Madre Vineyard located nearby in Santa Maria Valley and the soil is comprised of Sorrento Sandy Loam.

The Production

Only the best Pinot Noir grape clusters are handpicked in the vineyard in the early morning hours when the fruit is still cool. Pinot Noir has a tendency to ferment very quickly thus preventing full color and flavor extraction. To arrest the on-set of immediate fermentation, dry ice is added to small open top fermenting vats. This "cold soak" (at 45 °F) slows fermentation while saturating the juice with rich fruit flavor and true Pinot Noir color. Concomitant with the primary fermentation is malolactic fermentation (malic acid to lactic acid), which reduces the total acid and imparts softness to the wine. The grapes are pigeaged (foot treaded) 3 to 5 times daily to extract color and tannin. We then press the wine at 1 - 2 % sugar and allow it to complete fermentation in barrel; this helps integrate the qualities of oak in the wine. The wine was aged in new François Frères 100% French oak barrels for 22 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered. The bottled 662 cases of wine were further aged 10 months before release to allow complete integration and development.