Tasting Notes: This wine is a wonderful expression of what a cooler vintage at Jespersen Ranch can result in, with dark fruit flavors like raspberry and black cherry contrasted against floral, black tea and wet clay. This wine is ready to drink now but will continue to evolve over the next 5 years.

The 2021 vintage was dry and cool, which resulted in extended hangtime for all of our Jespersen Ranch grapes. We received just 11” of rain, which was remarkably less than the historical average of 25”. Budbreak arrived right on time in mid-March, followed by a warm and windy spring. Veraison began a bit later than normal, likely influenced by a cool and misty summer. We had no major weather events during the fall which allowed us to leave the grapes on the vine for as long as we needed to achieve ripeness. We harvested Pinot Noir between September 18th and October 22nd. Five different clones sourced from across the entire vineyard made up the final wine.

Winemaker Notes: After hand-harvesting the grapes, we fermented them in small, stainless steel, open-top tanks. A true small lot approach - this wine includes juice from 21 separate fermentations. 1/3 of the lots fermented natively, and we used stem inclusion (either whole cluster or dried stems) in half of the fermentations to further drive complexity. We aged the wine for 10 months in a combination of French oak barrels and a small concrete tank.

Varietal Composition: 100% Pinot Noir