2006 Black Arts Pinot Noir

($34.99)

Tasting Notes

For Pinot Noir, this is a pretty spicy wine. There are aromas of cloves, leather, and candied cherry with the fruit and leather carrying through onto the palate. The mouthfeel has firm, briary tannins which nicely balance the sweet fruit. A bit of alcoholic heat is balanced with some light acidity. Over his many years, this winemaker has learned that tannins need protein, and acidity in the wine needs acidity in the food. As always, our wines are meant to drink with dinner, any dinner, but this one really is a natural fit with tomatoes and sausage; probably chorizo with its spiciness.

Notes on Fermentation

All three lots noted above were kept separate as they were harvested, and all fermented on their own with our tried and trusted Pinot Noir yeast strain. The crushing rollers were adjusted to allow about 25% whole berries into the fermentation tanks. The tannins on each were excellent so the macerations were kept quite standard, with each pressed at dryness. Each wine was racked into its own barrel lot (mostly Bertranges and Allier barrels, new to 5 years old) and allowed to complete malolactic fermentation there. The clone 667 was allowed lees contact for 9 months while the other two lots were racked from their lees and returned to barrel in mid-winter to avoid "reductive" characters.