2005 PINOT NOIR CLOS
PEPE ( regular and early harvest bottlings)
Santa Rita Hills
At Clos Pepe, as elsewhere
in 2005, we had a really large potential crop and lots of vine
vigor, so considerable effort was spent in the vineyard. We carefully
went through adjusting the crop to get an even amount of fruit
on each vine and just the right amount of sunlight on each cluster.
Numerous passes had to be made to get it right; however, by late
summer the vineyard looked better than ever before. And on September
1st we picked the first half of the vineyard at slightly under
24 brix. The weather was so mild we were able to wait until September
17th to pick the other half at about 26 brix. (The measure winemakers
use for the sugar content of grapes is brix, which is identical
to percent sugar-26 brix is equal to 26% sugar.)
The two wines were fascinating
to watch as they matured in the barrel. The riper wine had a much
fatter, richer feel and an emphatically fruity aroma and flavor.
It was a crowd pleaser, but the wine-geek staff here thought it
lacked punch. The less ripe batch had a completely different profile.
It captured a floral aromatic quality that was reminiscent of
rose petals--it was just stunning. The flavors were crisper, finer
and more overtly tannic. We decided to blend the two lots and
think the resulting combination is marvelous. Like the chardonnay
from Clos Pepe, this wine is intensely flavored and precise. There
is no bling or nonsense here--you get the unadorned beauty of
this special vineyard site. By the way, we kept out one barrel
of the less ripe lot as a curiosity and bottled it separately--it
is also available for sale at our website.