Winemaker Notes
The purity of the fruit that lifts from the glass in the 2016 Comptche is why we love Pinot Noir. This remote coastal site is the coolest in both day and night of all our vineyards, helping preserve the natural deliciousness and balance savored from the bottle. Flavors run deep and show a mix of red and black fruit with brushes of tilled soil and a bit of game meat. The wines is seamless and deep with flavors that impact the palate sweetly. A joy for drinking now and and over time with fall and winter meals. Best enjoyed between 2020 and 2024.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A large and diverse appellation within California’s North Coast AVA, Mendocino is home to several smaller sub-regions—most notably the Anderson Valley. This scenic region, with rolling hills covered in redwood forests as well as vineyards, is one of the world’s top producers of certified organically-grown grapes. Due to wide geographical and climatic variation, a vast array of wine styles can be found here.