2017 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir

2017 was the vintage of the amazing Labor Day Weekend heat wave, when temperatures all over California soared toward 110 degrees.  The usually cool Santa Lucia Highlands got that hot, but all of the vineyards we source from made it through the hot spell in fine shape.  We didn't start harvesting there until one week after the heat subsided, and we didn't finish for another month.  The yields were what we could call normal, and the fruit came in perfectly ripe, in great shape. 

 

Our 2017 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir is a blend of 45% Peterson Vineyard, 45% Tondre Grapefield and 10% Cortada Alta.  Peterson and Tondre are the lower elevation sites, at around 300 feet above sea level, while Cortada Alta goes up to over 1,600 feet.  The wine is an elegant mix of the two cooler vineyards with the one that lies above the SLH fog.  This combination of cool with warm is apparent in the nose as there are the signature SLH aromas of rhubarb, wet earth and Pinot spice mixed with riper fruits such as plum and blackberry.  On the palate, this '17 SLH is lower in acidity than our prior three releases, with a rich and sultry texture that's very attractive at this young age.  We expect the drinking window to be from late 2018 through 2025.

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