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Wine Details
Price:
Description:
The 2004 Saralee's Pinot Noir is a delicious wine. Intense fruit flavors and dark color. Full bodied and friendly, it is spicy, fruity and crisp. Soft on the pallet and enjoyable now, it will improve for a few years.
Harvested on September 6 at 26° brix, we brought in ten tons. Clones used were 2A, 9, 15, 16, 23, 31, 32. The grapes were put through the destemmer into several small fermentation tanks and Ausmanhausen yeast was added immediately. On September 21, after 15 days, the must was pressed and the wine put into American oak barrels for one year.
This is our eleventh release of Pinot Noir from Saralee's Vineyard. Located in the Sonoma County's Russian River Valley, this vineyard is set up to take advantage of the best in modern viticultural techniques. They have planted hundreds of different rootstock and clonal variations. We feel that the blend of seven Pinot Noir clones we use adds greatly to the enjoyment and complexity of this wine.
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Varietal Definition
Pinot Noir:
The name is derived from the French words for ‘pine’ and ‘black’ alluding to the varietals' tightly clustered dark purple pine cone shaped bunches of fruit. Pinot Noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine. By volume most Pinot Noir in America is grown in California with Oregon coming in second. Other regions are Washington State and New York.During 2004 and the beginning of 2005, Pinot Noir became considerably more popular amongst consumers in the United States, possibly because of the movie Sideways. Being lighter in style, it has benefited from a trend toward more restrained, less alcoholic wines. It is the delicate, subtle, complex and elegant nature of this wine that encourages growers and winemakers to cultivate this difficult grape. Robert Parker has described Pinot Noir: "When it's great, Pinot Noir produces the most complex, hedonistic, and remarkably thrilling red wine in the world."
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