Las Jaras Pinot Noir 2021

From Las Jaras:

As always, this wine turned out quite stunning. There is such a classic Burgundian vibe (think Beaune) from this wine that we are enamored by. The 2021 Oregon Pinot Noir opens up with a nose of damp earth, black plum, raspberry, pine needles and hibiscus. The palate is bright in the attack with flavors of raspberry changing red plum and wild strawberry. It is elegant and lifted with a finish showing the supplest of tannins and fresh acidity. There is a very long finish that is bright with minerality. This is a perfect wine for sushi, grilled trout, or other lighter fare.

Vineyard
La Belle Promenade is farmed organically with high precision and high density, and without irrigation. The vineyard sits 820 feet above sea level. The soils are the volcanic Jory and Nekia series. This wine is made from two blocks: one-third is clone 115 and the remaining two-thirds, which comes from the Orchestra Block, is planted to a random mix of clones.

Winemaking
To prepare the grapes for their 600-plus-mile journey from Oregon to our winery in Sebastopol, California, we had to get our vented, quarter-ton macrobins up to the vineyard. Once the grapes were harvested, they began their journey back to Sonoma County on a semi-truck with a refrigerator unit set to 40F. The fruit was pretty clean, despite the growing conditions. The grapes from the Orchestra Block were destemmed and dumped into the tank. The grapes from the clone 115 block were destemmed with 20% of the bins left as whole clusters. We added no SO2 to the tanks because the fruit was very clean. The wines fermented naturally at cool temperatures with very gentle cap movements. At dryness, we drained the tanks and transferred the free-run wines to new and used large-format barrels. (The press wines were aged separately and added to our Glou Glou wine). The core of the blend’s wines continued to age on their lees until one month before bottling (14 months after harvest), when they were racked clean and returned to barrel. Before bottling, we racked the wine clean again, and we were able to bottle without fining or filtration.