~Pinot Noir~

The Harvest
1999 was in many ways a carbon copy of 1998; a poor set exacerbated by a cool spring and summer. The fall brought a lingering that pushed harvest dates back a full ten days to two weeks. In the second week of September we experienced a heat spike that raised afternoon temperatures into the 90's, unusual for the Central Coast. This heat spell brought around the flavors in the grapes and turned what could have been a dismal vintage into a grand one. This sudden increase in temperature caused a respiration of acidity reducing the overall acid in the grapes at harvest. Mother Nature always gives us tradeoffs and this time, she exchanged flavors for some structure.

In retrospect, I am extremely pleased with the vintage and rank it number two behind 1990 as one of the best vintages I have had the pleasure to be part of since I began making wine in 1985.

The Vineyard
Gary Pisoni first introduced me to Gary Franscioni in 1997. A reserved man of quiet intensity, he shared a similar desire to grow world class Pinot Noir. For all of Gary Pisoni's boisterous passion, Gary Franscioni exhibited an understated confidence as a world-class grower. Together they planted 42 acres of Pinot Noir taken from cuttings off the Pisoni vineyard and grafted to 3309 and 5C rootstock. The vineyard site in Monterey is just about 8 kilometers south of Sleepy Hollow Vineyard along the Santa Lucia bench. Planted to a vertical trellis on 3 X 8 spacing, and farmed to 35-40 hectoliters per hectare both Gary's are determined to produce the same quality of fruit as that of the famed Pisoni Vineyard.

Most of our vineyard sites are significantly influenced by the relative proximity to the Pacific Ocean and Garys' Vineyard is no exception. Often fog lingers in the vineyard until late in the morning only to return in the late afternoon. This contributes to the slow evolution and the fairly high acid of our grapes, an essential component of our wines.

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 Garys' Vineyard.

The grapes undergo a tremendous amount of triage (sorting) both in the vineyard and after arriving in the cellar. I consider this one of the most significant practices we employ--allowing us to truly say that only the best grapes go into our fermenters. We believe the whole cluster fermentation technique contributes significantly to the aromatics and texture of our wines. It is the gentlest manipulation of Pinot Noir grapes possible. Once in the fermenters, the cap is covered with 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 Frères barrels from the Allier forest in the center of France. The wine will remain in barrel for 16 months without racking and will be bottled without fining or filtration.