2017 'the love' Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
After a year of intentional bottle-aging before its release, we are blown away by the 2017 Pinot Noir! The improvement of wine during cellaring is a beautiful thing to experience and whenever we can choose to release a wine with age it is always tremendously satisfying. We've learned that greatness often means patience.
This wine comes from two special blocks of hillside fruit from the Bucher Vineyard, located on Sonoma County's heralded Westside Road in the northern part of the Russian River Valley Appellation. It is made in the gentlest way possible, using only gravity flow winemaking techniques and 100% indigenous yeast and malolactic fermentation.
This vintage of 'the love' shimmers dark red in the glass with a racy aromas of black fruit and freshly cut raspberries. The mouthfeel is textured, and despite the nature of its youth, has a lengthy profile that finishes with beautiful fine tannins. It possesses an old-world rusticity we absolutely adore, and we cannot wait to see this wine progress over the next 5 years and beyond. The 2017 Pinot Noir was aged 16 months in 40% new Francois Frères Oak barriques and was bottled direct, unfiltered and unfined.