Winemaker Notes
All the fruit in this Pinot Noir is grown on the Etude Estate Vineyards in Carneros and comes from shy-bearing selections with a marked tendency to produce small, irregularly shaped bunches and very small berries. Growers typically hold such vines in low regard due to their inability to produce consistent crops. This tenuous economic viability threatens their existence.
Heirloom Pinot Noir is made in small lots using the most traditional techniques, with no fining or filtration. New French oak barrels are employed for aging each vintage. Approximately 1,000 cases of the 2006 vintage were produced from these very restrictive sources.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Big, powerful, soft, rich and ageable. In other words, classic Etude Heirloom. Resembles the rich 2002, with massive flavors of cherries, rasp-berries, cocoa, anise, bacon and smoky sandal-wood. Enormously complex, a wine that changes with every sip as it breathes and warms. Shows the density of Cabernet, with Pinot's silkiness.
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.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.