Winemaker's Notes:
This is the third vintage from DuMOL's densely-planted Estate vineyard and they are starting to see a real signature evolving that is apparent throughout each vintage. The tight spacing (4x3 feet verses the normal 7x5) limits the amount of direct sunlight on the clusters themselves, protecting the bright fruit aromas and nuances that
can be lost through over exposure in the climate.
This 'aroma potential' is never more apparent than in this new Estate bottling – the wine just leaps out of the glass at you, but not in a clumsy full throttle way. Rather it's elegant, stylish and quite beguiling. You get a sense of acidity underpinning the wine throughout and some really unusual inner-mouth dried flower characters that only boost its distinctive complexity. It demonstrates perfectly how a wide array of subtle nuances, layers of diverse aroma and flavor can gradually build, broaden, envelope, transition and flow into one another to produce something that transcends simple fruitiness to bring a special site character and signature with the complexity that sets it apart. This really hits the high notes and progresses into rarified territory among its Californian pinot peers. |