“This is a powerful Pinot Noir that demonstrates excellent depth along with a rich, velvety texture that is balanced by a wonderful touch of acidity. The finish is silky and persistent with wild berries and spices attacking your palate. An excellent debut for David Ramey’s first Pinot Noir.”– International Wine Report

The 2012 vintage was mild, interspersed with rain during the second half of the growing season.  Our first Pinot Noir, from the Platt Vineyard, was harvested on October 8th at 24.1 degrees Brix, as we raced against humidity and the possibility of mildew and botrytis setting in.  The crisp acidity and minerality from this cool site are quite apparent in the wine and picking optimally ripe fruit resulted in a perfectly balanced wine.

The cuvaison (time on skins) extended for a full three weeks, resulting in a more structured Pinot than many current California examples:  this is a Pinot which will reward cellaring.  Aging on fine lees, with malolactic in barrel, incorporated the oak so that the 15 months spent in one-year-old barrels, previously used for Chardonnay, is barely noticeable. As with all of our wines, it went through native yeast and malolactic fermentations. We bottled 130 cases without filtration in March, 2014.

The Platt Vineyard is our coolest site, producing wine that is more angular, more soil and mineral driven than fruit driven. Platt was planted in 2003 with Wente selection Chardonnay collected from one of our Hyde Vineyard blocks, the rows are densely planted (3′ and 4′ by 6′) on low-vigor rootstock (420A). In 2010, we removed the Chardonnay trunks from three acres and grafted Pommard and 828 Dijon Pinot Noir clones to the rootstock.  By 2012, the vines were old enough to make a wine of sufficient density and concentration to merit a Ramey bottling.