Lingua Franca Estate Pinot Noir 2021

Lingua Franca Estate Pinot Noir is sourced from several parcels throughout the Lingua Franca Estate Vineyard in Willamette Valley's Eola-Amity Hills.  Lingua Franca Estate Pinot Noir begins with a heady scent of roses and red fruits. On the palate, the wine is quite dense and rich, powerful in expression, with a perfect balance of red and black fruits, dark plum, pomegranate and raspberry, then the nuances of wet stone, savory herbs come through in the lifted lingering finish and velvety texture. Lingua Franca Estate is beautifully located in the heart of the Eola-Amity Hills, dry farmed organically on Jory, Gelderman and Nekia soils.

Vineyard Notes
This Estate Pinot has a large proportion of fruit from some of our finest sites, with nearly half the grapes coming from the two best Blocks 1-2, planted with PN777 clone and another 17% from Block 3 with the same material and slightly deeper soil. Another 31% is sourced from two blocks of the very structural PN 943, at the top center and middle of the highest blocks.

Production Notes
The fruit was sorted in the vineyard, handpicked, then wild-yeast fermented in medium sized concrete and stainless-steel tanks. The Estate Pinot had 19% whole cluster fermentation. The rest of the fruit was destemmed with only whole berries selected for the final wine. The grapes are sorted first in the vineyard and then by hand and machine at the crush pad. Bins of whole berries are carried by forklift to the stainless steel fermenters. Fermentation is spontaneous with wild yeast as is malolactic. Punch downs are done by traditional pigeage. After fermentation, the Estate Pinot Noir was aged in a combination of 25% new and 75% old French oak barriques for 12 months and four in tank, prior to bottling.

Winemaker Notes
A cold and rainy spring led to a late frost that devastated the Chardonnay crop. However, the end of June brought a weeklong heat wave of 95-104 degrees that helped kickstart the period of bloom. July was calm and moderate with little rain. Thankfully, the frost had little effect on Pinot Noir, which has a later start, and less exposure. Bloom came the first week of July, and veraison began on Labor Day weekend, finishing a week later. Picking was expedited due to rain pressure, with Pinot harvest starting at the end of the first week of October and ending on October 20th.