Patricia Green Estate Old Vine Pinot Noir 2009

Vintages like 2009 show the amazing diversity of this vineyard. In fact, it was in 2003 (another very warm vintage) that we first divided up the Estate fruit into these two different and distinct bottlings. The older vines here have incredible root depth in our talc-y, sandy soils. These vines are amazingly vigorous and healthy as they have found deep pockets of nutrients, minerals and water that don't exist in our thinner, porous top-soils. While the young vines rely on power the older vines produce amazingly refined, minerally and suave Pinots. The difference in the wines from blocks that have both older and younger plants in them is startling. This bottling is amazingly red-fruited given the blacker nature of the regular Estate bottling. The pigmentation is far lighter and the tannins are finer and smoother throughout the wine. This is a harmonious and drop-dead beautiful bottling of Pinot. The texture is silky yet has a core of supple tannins that suggest long-term cellaring as a possibility. The red raspberry core is infused with a quartz-y sort of minerality to it and the finish is amazingly long. Again, this is a wine based on balance and refinement so even within a warm vintage this makes is mark by being discrete and feminine. 675 cases bottled.