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Wine Details
Price:
$21.95 per bottle
Description:
Wente Vineyards has been growing Pinot Noir in the Arroyo Seco region of Monterey since the 1960s. It is the ideal region to grow this Burgundian varietal because of the long, cool growing season. This perfect climate allows the grapes to fully ripen and develop deep fruit, spice and other flavors. The wine derives its name from the creek along which our pinot noir vineyards grow. The gravelly-loam soils found here, rich with shale and limestone deposits, impart desirable earth and mineral qualities to the wine. There are several blocks dating back to 1963 planted with the old Pommard and Martini clones; neighboring these are much more recent, high density plantings, that are planted with a variety of new clones. The new plantings are farmed for a more intense tannic structure and more powerful fruit extraction. Forty-eight inch shoots result in more leaves per cluster, creating a varietal intensity in the ripe berries. All the fruit is hand picked and sorted. The selected clusters are placed in ½ ton bins, chilled and transported to the press in refrigerated trucks. After fermentation, the wine was racked into French oak barrels for a total aging period of 10 months. Post malo-lactic, the wine was racked and finished aging. Prior to bottling, the wine was fined with egg whites, racked and bottled unfiltered.
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Varietal Definition
Pinot Noir:
The name is derived from the French words for ‘pine’ and ‘black’ alluding to the varietals' tightly clustered dark purple pine cone shaped bunches of fruit. Pinot Noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine. By volume most Pinot Noir in America is grown in California with Oregon coming in second. Other regions are Washington State and New York.During 2004 and the beginning of 2005, Pinot Noir became considerably more popular amongst consumers in the United States, possibly because of the movie Sideways. Being lighter in style, it has benefited from a trend toward more restrained, less alcoholic wines. It is the delicate, subtle, complex and elegant nature of this wine that encourages growers and winemakers to cultivate this difficult grape. Robert Parker has described Pinot Noir: "When it's great, Pinot Noir produces the most complex, hedonistic, and remarkably thrilling red wine in the world."
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