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The 2000 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir is once again a blend of fruit from the Pisoni Vineyard and the Garys' Vineyard. As you may recall, although these two vineyards are planted to the same clone and are located only a few miles apart, they produce markedly different wines.
The 2000 vintage was an early ripening vintage at both the Pisoni and Garys' Vineyards. We harvested Pisoni on September 11 while Garys' came in only one day later on September 12. Both vineyards were harvested with virtually identical sugar levels of 25.7 brix. As is our practice, we used a refrigerated truck to haul the grapes to our winery thus assuring that they arrived in the finest possible condition.
At the winery we chose to treat the juice and wine from the two vineyards somewhat differently. Both vineyards received a three day cold soak however, we choose to bleed off (saignée) approximately 15% of the juice from the Garys' Vineyard. Our goal was to concentrate the flavors and increase the weight of this wine. We also used somewhat different yeasts on the two vineyards. Garys' was fermented with RC212, Barolo and BM45 yeast while Pisoni was fermented with the vineyard's indigenous yeast and also Assmanshausen and RC212. In both cases, the goal was to use yeasts that emphasize the characteristics of the vineyard.
The Pisoni fermentation went off without a hitch. In fact, if anything it might have gone too fast. In contrast, the Garys' fermentation dragged on and on with malolactic fermentation occurring almost simultaneously. This often happens in more forward and immediately appealing years in Burgundy. Both the Pisoni and Garys' Pinots were pressed to a combination of new and used French oak barrels with the majority of the wood coming from the Marsannay cooperage. The Pisoni Pinot was aged in approximately 60% new oak with the Garys' seeing about half new oak. Both wines remained in these barrels, without racking, until bottling.
In creating the Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir our goal was to balance out the overtly fruity character of the Garys' Vineyard with the weight and richness of the Pisoni Pinot Noir. Moreover, after the reception of the 1999 wine we felt we had something to live up to. We carefully selected barrels from the two vineyards to blend together. Fourteen of the nineteen barrels come from the Garys' Vineyard. These barrels obviously provide the wine's basic fruit character. The remaining barrels give the wine its backbone and weight. The blend of these two wines, the 2000 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, is truly a complete wine. Forward, rich, and round with opulent gobs of fruit and yet plenty of weight and a bit more verve than last year's offering. This wine offers immediate drinkability but should age well for several years.
PRODUCTION: 437 cases
RELEASE DATE: November, 2001
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