Roco Wine - Gravel Road - Pinot Noir 2014 | Monsieur Touton Selection

Tasting notes

Aromas of ripe Black Splendor plum fruit, mocha and a subtle earthy white peppercorn spice. Dark fruit and mission fig with vanilla essence on the palate. Ripe, fruit driven texture from beginning to end, framed by robust yet sanded tannins.

Gravel Road Pinot Noir

The hills in the Willamette Valley are punctuated by gravel roads, which lead to the regions finest vineyards. ROCO's Gravel Road Pinot Noir is a blend of several of these distinctive vineyards including the Soles' own Wits' End Vineyard. An outstanding value, the Gravel Road Pinot Noir flavor profile surpasses many other wineries flagship Pinot Noirs. The old world style offers bold flavor with balance and grace to pair well with nearly any food. The select small lots for this blend are fermented separately in barrel then aged for 18+ months before bottling.

Vintage notes

We had great weather during bloom in early June leading to many large clusters on the vines. The potential to over crop was the real viticulture challenge of 2014. We learned from past vintages that dropping a significant number of clusters per vine near Veraison (berry color change) is required for truly focused, delicious wines. The summer brought us near a record number of 90 degree days. It's often said that the vintage is made in the last couple weeks of harvest. Cold crisp night temperatures days before harvest brought amazing fruit flavors and acidity. A nice easy picking pace took place between September 11th - October 4th.

Winemaking

ROCO Pinot Noir is handpicked and then chilled overnight to 38 Farenheit in our large cold room. The chilled bunches are gently de-stalked and the whole berries fall into small 1.6 ton open fermenters. The berries soak for ten days before beginning ferment with our proprietary, house-cultured indigenous wine yeast. Soaking allows gentle extraction of color and flavor from the berry skin, and not the bitter-tasting seeds. The fermentations are hand punched twice a day to mix skins and fermenting juices. Ferments are allowed to reach about 28 Celsius. A post-fermentation soak occurs until the wine is just right for removing from the skins and seeds. At that time the ferment is gently pressed in our modern tank press. The young wine is sent to barrel for Malo-lactic fermentation to soften the acidity and to add further complexity, then racked once to a mix of new and three-year-old, tight-grained, French oak barrels. The wines are aged in barrel for 18 or more months before bottling.

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