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
Sleepy Hollow Vineyard is situated along the Santa Lucia bench in the northwestern section of the Salinas Valley of Monterey County. Planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in 1974, it was independently owned until 1990 when Robert Talbott purchased the property for his Talbott Winery.

The vineyard is broken up into two major parcels: A and B. Within Parcel A, we farm 6 acres in Set 1 South, which is located at the top of the gently sloping vineyard. We select blocks located high on the slopes to ensure good drainage and intensity of flavors in the grapes. Soils consist of sandy loam and Monterey shale making for excellent drainage. The vines are on their own roots and are a combination of Martini and an upright clone the French call "Pinot Droid." Spacing is set at 5x6 with a split canopy trellis designed to acclimate the clusters to the sun early in the year, thus avoiding sunburn later in the summer. This trellis design also helps to produce more evenly ripe fruit. Pruning is conducted in the winter with only 2 spurs per cordon kept. And in the spring, we prune to 2 clusters per cane. In 1998, we further reduced clusters to one per shoot or about 2 pounds per vine, well below the industry average of 12-15 pounds per vine.

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 Sleepy Hollow.

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 the wine full color and flavor extraction. To arrest the on-set of immediate fermentation, dry ice is added to the 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 from prolonged contact with the grape skins. 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 tannins. We then press the wine at 2-3% 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 15 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered.