2004 Quail Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir (750ml)

Purchase 2004 Quail Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir (750ml)

PHILOSOPHY
The Quail Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir is the definitive expression of Pinot Noir from our 42-acre home estate. Only the finest barrels from our best vineyard blocks in each vintage are included. Our goal is to respect the vintage and our distinctive terroir by crafting a wine that is elegant, complex, balanced, and age worthy.

2004 GROWING SEASON
While 2004 will be remembered as the earliest harvest in 50 years, it was nonetheless a long, cool growing season that has yielded some exceptional wines. A warm winter led to early budbreak, exposing vineyards to potential frost. Fortunately this threat did not materialize, and the grapes matured through an uneventful spring and summer. Heat spikes towards the end of the season pushed many young-vine Pinot vineyards to full ripeness in late August, meaning that a challenge for producers was managing the logistics of many sites ripening simultaneously. A lull in harvest activity followed before picking started again mid-September. Cooling in mid-late September allowed some of our later ripening sites extra hang time, the final picks finishing in early October. This spread of maturity dates gave us an exciting aroma and flavor range to blend from.

THE WINEMAKING
All fruit was hand-harvested early in the morning, transported to the winery while still cool, then hand-sorted before being gently de-stemmed and transferred without pumping into small (2.5 and 4 ton) open-top fermenters. Fruit was then cold-soaked 5-10 days at 50°F before allowing native yeast fermentations to begin. Fermentations were gently punched down by hand 2-4 times per day. Total skin contact time ranged from 14-22 days depending upon each lot objective. Wines were then barreled where secondary, malolactic fermentation occurred over the next several months. Primary coopers for this vintage were Remond and Francois Freres, complemented by Latour, Mercurey, Cadus, and Rousseau. As usual, racking was minimal or not at all, with aging on light, or full, lees until the blend was assembled. The primary lots for this blend came from our P2 (32-year old Swan selection) and Hanna (Swan) blocks, with Laguna block (Dijon clone) this year playing more of a supporting role.  This was also the first vintage that a small number of the best barrels from our maturing P5 and P6 blocks (Dijon, Pommard, Swan) made the cut into this blend. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

TASTING NOTES
The anticipation from the classic, bright, youthful garnet appearance is satisfied by a complex nose of earth, fruit, and floral notes. Aromas of dark cherry and rhubarb are accented by lavender, forest floor, smoke, and a “minerally” graphite character. On the palate flavors echo the nose, evolving and gaining complexity as the wine breathes.  The structure of this vintage remains true to terroir, and true to the elegant, balanced Lynmar house style. There is power here, but the wine is lithe and light on its feet at the same time. The finish is remarkably long, lingering persistently for several minutes. While enjoyable upon release, we expect this vintage will be a bit more tightly wound than usual during its first year in bottle. Based on the track record of this vineyard we anticipate positive bottle development through at least 2012.