The 2008 vintage at Clos Pepe Vineyard will long be remembered as the "year of the frost." Unusually
cold weather in early April killed young shoots in their infancy and left the vineyard with
only a tiny crop; so, out of 3 acres of fruit, we harvested only 2.3 tons. The yield showed a great
deal of irregularity with some perfectly ripe fruit mixed together with under-ripe clusters.
Thus, we undertook extraordinary measures - sorting the fruit truly cluster-by-cluster (and dumping
almost 1/3 of it) - to make certain that only clusters which were truly ripe made it into the
fermentor. One advantage of having such a small crop is that the fermentations were contained
to just a couple of one-ton fermentors. This allowed us to keep an especially close watch on the
juice as uneven ripening is often accompanied by excessive ethyl acetate levels. We were able to
avoid this issue by making certain that fermentation took off quickly (we moved the bins outside
to warm them up).
After malolactic fermentation we tasted thru the far-fewer-than-normal number of barrels and
found the wine to be very good but perhaps not up to the standards set by previous vintages of
Clos Pepe. It was only later, during a more in-depth tasting that we discovered we had, indeed,
produced a wine that was worthy of the Clos Pepe name. The best blend we could come up with
was a mere two barrels which, unfortunately, means only 47 cases of wine.
A few months after bottling when we tasted our 2008 Clos Pepe blind alongside a number of
other 2008 Sta. Rita Hills wines, we were thrilled to find it finished first on our scorecards.
The 2008 Siduri Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir is somewhat different than previous vintages.
Certainly the red fruits, rich mid-palate and firm structure remain, but there is a more distinct
mineral and lead pencil character to the wine. It is rich and yet controlled. Given the unusual
conditions, we aren't certain if this wine will make "old bones" but it should provide for compelling
drinking over the next 3-5 years.
Cases: 47
Released: February 2010
