2002 Wedell Cellars Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir

For our 2002 Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir we chose a well known vineyard to custom farm two different dijon clones of pinot noir (clones 13 &115) for us. We had them keep the vineyard’s yield exceptionally low and the resulting wine is spectacular.

It has always been our philosophy that less is more and the 2002 Wedell Cellars Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir is a fine example of this. After harvest the grapes were destemmed, the free run juice resulting from the destemming was pumped off and discarded (saignee), the grapes were then cold soaked for two days and then open top fermented with the cap being punched down on a regular basis, finally after ten days of fermentation the wine was gently pressed off. Because our Estate Hillside Vineyard Pinot Noir contains only free run and not any pressed wine, our Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir was then combined with the remaining gentle pressing of our Hillside Vineyard Pinot Noir and placed in four new French oak and two three year old French oak barrels to age for sixteen months. The final blend of the 2002 Wedell Cellars Arroyo Grande Pinot Noir is 92% Arroyo Grande Valley and 8% Wedell Cellars Hillside Vineyard Pinot Noir. While aging the wine underwent complete malolactic fermentation and in February 2004 the wine was racked off for assemblage and bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The deep color and intense bouquet of cherry, raspberry and cranberry are only a hint at what an extraordinary wine we have created. The richness and complexity is reminiscent of a truly exceptional pinot noir, we feel that this wine while enjoyable now will only improve for years to come.