2021 Détente Pinot Noir

Similar to our experience with our earlier discovery of the HERITAGE Pinot, DÉTENTE is a blend of two adjacent blocks in our Estate vineyard. This all-new cuvee is a result of our first tasting of the 2021 vintage, an annual exercise wherein we methodically analyze the fully fermented juice from each block and evaluate the results. Some blocks, such as UNUM and FUGIO, are known quantities; however, given that we are sampling from ten different plots of pinot noir alone, there is always a bit of discovery as well.

For several years, our adjacent plantings of the workhorse French Dijon Clone 115 and the first UC Davis clone, Pommard (named after the original cuttings taken from the famous Burgundy Village in 1951), have impressed us by producing delicious fruit that has added great depth and character to the Estate wines we have made from them. As the vines have aged, their uniqueness has become more and more pronounced. With other blocks also gaining complexity (and thus could make up more of the Estate blend), we believed these two blocks had “Penny Label” written all over them!

That said, and given our success in developing HERITAGE as a cuvee, we thought it could be interesting to see how the fruit from these two parcels might integrate. The result was fantastic, and we could not be more pleased! While the clonal characteristics are quite different, there are numerous similarities at play here. Both blocks share the same soil types and therefore were planted with the same rootstock. Their sun aspects and row orientations are also in harmony, they were planted the same year, and they are both spur pruned. While we generally believe terroir triumphs over clone, these two blocks truly complement each other and are better as a blend.

VINIFICATION NOTES:
-Pick date 8/31
-Brix 23.2
-Acidity 5.1 g/L
-pH 3.68
-100% Destemmed
-Fermented in concrete open top tanks
-Aged in 10% new 228 L. barriques