Complex, youthful, textural.
Made of hand harvested, organic grapes from Oliver’s Black Sage Road from 20-year old Syrah vines and 10-year old Vigonier vines. Grapes were foot-tread, which creates a juicy fruit. There’s 2% Viognier in the Syrah; just enough to support it and bring out the floral and apricot notes. Fermented naturally in whole clusters over a 21 day period (foot-tread up to 3x daily), the free run is drained, pressed, racked into barrels, and aged 11 months in a mixture of new, 2nd fill, and neutral barrels (56%) French and American oak barrels. A secondary malolactic fermentation occured over a 12-month maturation period prior to being bottled.
Buchanan describes his small cuvee wines as: sustainable, honest and progressive, producing wines with personality and a purity of flavour.
He uses indigenous yeast, minimal amounts of sulfites, no enzymes and no temperature control; the wines are unfined with little to no filtration.
This Pinot is youthful and textural. Notes of boysenberry, cocoa, white pepper and grated dark chocolate, smoked meat and espresso lead to an earthy and savoury mouth. Coffee and bitter chocolate, toasted spice and charred meat flavours linger on a complex, but tight palate. Good length here, but I highly recommend decanting or cellar aging.
Rich Meats , Barbeque, Cellar Keepers, French Food, Green Wines
©copyright 2012 Daenna Van Mulligen
Wine Scores reviewed - 2020-06-17 15:16:43.0
