The 2000 Sonoma County Pinot Noir is the most immediately approachable of the Appellation wines. Once again, the majority of fruit for the Sonoma County Pinot Noir comes from the older vines at the Van der Kamp Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain. This fruit was some of the last picked in 2000 with harvest finally taking place on October 26.
We blended the Pinot Noir from these older vines with a small amount of fruit from Van der Kamp's younger vines and also with a bit of fruit from the Sapphire Hill Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. The younger vine fruit at Van der Kamp was harvested 10 days earlier than the older vine section while the Sapphire Hill was quite the early bird, with harvest taking place on September 19.
Obviously we kept the fruit from the different sections and different vineyards separate. With the Van der Kamp fruit we purposefully initiated a 5 day cold soak but then, upon the commencement of fermentation, we purposefully pushed fermentation through rather quickly using RC212 and Assmanhausen yeasts. The Sapphire Hill fruit fermented at a bit more leisurely pace with a cold soak and then a longer fermentation process using, primarily, a yeast strain isolated by Williams Selyem winery.
We carefully tasted all of the barrels when coming up with the final Sonoma County Pinot Noir blend. The Van der Kamp Vineyard always has a unique flavor profile and we wanted to capture that and yet also give the wine more weight (which was provided by the Sapphire Hill fruit). The final blend is primarily old vine Pinot Noir from Sonoma Mountain with some of the younger vine fruit and one barrel of the Sapphire Hill Pinot Noir. The wine was aged in approximately 50% new French oak from a variety of cooperages including Francois Freres, Remond, and Cadus. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The 2000 Siduri Sonoma County Pinot Noir is a medium-bodied wine with bright cherry and raspberry fruit flavors. The wine is made more complex by hints of smoked meat and brush. The finish shows some of the vanillin character which comes from new French oak barrels. This is a lush and fairly opulent wine meant for drinking over the next few years and a perfect example of a Sonoma County Pinot Noir.
PRODUCTION: 216 cases
RELEASE DATE: November, 2001
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