2011 gets its @#$% together!
From John, October 28th, 2011It’s a miracle! The first two weeks of October were pure rain and seemed to signal a disastrous harvest ahead. Indeed in most years such an event would have rotted the fruit and sent us scurrying for a positive message to be gleaned from it all. And, indeed, I was at that point as recently as October 15th.
Filling a fermenter with Clos Electrique
And now as we hit the end of the month we are seeing gorgeous Pinot noir filling our fermenters, Pinot noir with firm acidity and moderate sugars (hooray for 12.5% alcohols) and, wonder of wonders, ripe full flavors. Meanwhile the white grapes continue to sit in the vineyards slowly losing acid and gaining flavors (the working descriptor here is slowly!). But still the long-term forecasts are holding in there and our first picking of Clos Electrique Blanc yielded pommace from the press that smelled of cloves, a very good sign!!
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An 18-year vertical of Abbey Ridge Pinot noir…..
Since our early days, each year we have put aside a small number of Abbey Ridge bottles and stored in them in our underground cave with the purpose of tasting them at a later date. This January we excavated 18 magnums of Abbey Ridge Pinot noir spanning the years 1993 to 2010. On June 5th the wines were unveiled to a small gathering of wine experts. Please read on to see my tasting notes from this remarkable event.
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