2004 Pinot Noir, Dierberg Vineyard
Specifications
- Appellation Santa Maria Valley AVA
- Bottling Date August, 2005
- Country USA
- Harvest Date September, 2004
- ph 3.67
- Region Santa Barbara County
- Type Still
- Varietal Pinot Noir
- Vineyard Dierberg Vineyard
- Winemaker Norm Yost
Awards
San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition 2006 Gold
Production Notes
Pinot Noir clones 13, 113; 267 cases produced
Tasting Notes
One of the characteristics of Dierberg that we just love is the smell and taste of that Santa Maria sunshine – it shines through every bottle. You experience the place through the wine. The 2004 Dierberg is a gorgeous ruby color, with glints of garnet around the edges. Cherry aromas – red, Bing and black – first delight the senses. The perfume of clone 13 then leads to the darker fruits from clone 113 on the palate. Plums, black cherry, cola and a beautiful berry profile then lead to a red fruit profile of red plum and rhubarb. There is a long finish of red fruit, followed by hints of cocoa. The wine has layers of flavors, a nice firm acidity and soft tannins – and that sunshine in a bottle that just says “Dierberg” to us. This wine is showing beautifully in its youth, but will continue to integrate and gain complexity over the next 5-8 years. Only 267 cases produced
Vineyard Notes
The Dierberg Vineyard continues to be one of our favorite sites – and our customers too, since this wine consistently sells out first. The vineyard is located 14 miles from the ocean in the Santa Maria Valley, another of our transverse west-to-east running valleys here in Santa Barbara County. The maritime influence of foggy mornings, warm sunny days and cool evenings produces Pinot Noir of extraordinary character. The vineyard is comprised of undulating hills and a sandy loam soil and is planted to an ensemble of classic, low-yielding Pinot Noir clones. We again chose clone 13, sometimes called the “Martini” clone, and then decided this year to pair that with clone 113, one of the “Dijon” clones.
Winemaker Notes
Although an unusual heat spell in early September accelerated ripening of Pinot Noir across the county, the grapes from Dierberg held up well and we are extremely pleased with this vintage. Although we were only a few days away from picking anyway, the heat spike produced a concentration in the wine that is quite delightful, and adds an interesting layer of complexity. The grapes were all de-stemmed upon arrival at the production facility in the “Lompoc Wine Ghetto”, and then placed into open top 4x4 fermenters to cool down for a few days. Soon thereafter, the berries were inoculated with yeast and fermentation took off! Several times each day the cap of skins was “punched down” into the fermenting juice to extract color, tannin and flavor into the new wine. After primary (alcoholic) fermentation had completed, the wine was gravity fed into a combination of new and older French oak barrels, where it aged for ten months. The wine was not racked during aging, but was lightly filtered prior to bottling in August of 2005.