Pinot Noir Santa Barbara 2006

We started making Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara to complement our tremendously popular Carneros Pinot. Where Carneros Pinot leans toward bright and elegant fresh raspberry and cherry notes, Santa Barbara Pinots are dark, rich and complex, with dried cherry, herb, cola, sassafras and minerally flavors. The two wines form a great partnership in showcasing the breadth of style in California Pinot.

Vineyards

Our Santa Barbara Pinot comes from three vineyards; Bien Nacido, Goodchild and Los Alamos. Bien Nacido is the largest single vineyard holding in Santa Barbara. The other vineyard sources are those of Louis Lucas. We get fruit from both Goodchild, and Louis' Los Alamos Vineyard, around twenty miles to the south. Goodchild has mostly the Pommard clones (4 & 5) while Los Alamos is mostly Dijon clones (115, 667, and 777). Goodchild usually ripens around the beginning of October, with Los Alamos around a week later. Goodchild is across the Sisquoc River from Bien Nacido.

Winemaking

In making this Pinot Noir, we let the terroir of these beautiful vineyards do the talking. After harvest, grapes are gently crushed, whereupon they undergo a slow, cool fermentation in barrel, allowing the classic Pinot Noir flavors and floral aromas characteristic of the vineyards to emerge. We then lay the wine down into 30% new French oak barrels to age for 6 months. Basic yeast and minimalist winemaking are used on our Pinot to let the appellation speak as much as possible.