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Ponzi Vineyard - Aurora Pinot Noir 2013
Vintage
The season started with a warm spring bringing an early bud break. From that point the growing season remained warm and dry leading us to believe we would have an early, uneventful harvest. All went as planned until the last week in September when the tail end of a Japanese typhoon dropped close to 6 inches of rain on the valley and completely saturated the vineyards. This is when it got interesting!
Having seen many wet vintages in Oregon we had some ideas on how to handle it; using helicopters to dry the vines, multiple picking passes, extensive sorting before destemming and very careful winemaking among other methods. October saved us with three long weeks of dry, breezy days allowing the fruit left on the vines to reach optimum flavor without any dilution from rain.
Having seen many wet vintages in Oregon we had some ideas on how to handle it; using helicopters to dry the vines, multiple picking passes, extensive sorting before destemming and very careful winemaking among other methods. October saved us with three long weeks of dry, breezy days allowing the fruit left on the vines to reach optimum flavor without any dilution from rain.
Fermentation
All of the fruit was hand sorted and destemmed. Fermented in small lots with five days of cold soak to increase aroma and color, the peak temperatures reached 90 degrees. The fermenters were aerated or manually punched down twice a day (for 12-20 days) before undergoing a 7 day
post-fermentation maceration to increase structure and length. This wine was aged in French oak barrels (50% new), for 20 months. It was racked and bottled by gravity without filtration or fining and was aged in bottle for five months before its release. Alcohol is 13.5%. Finished pH is 3.73.
Vineyard
This Pinot noir is crafted exclusively with fruit from Ponzi’s LIVE Certified Sustainable Aurora Vineyard.
Winemaker's notes
This expressive and changing nose shows crushed rose petal, Mexican chocolate, cracked black pepper, Herbes de Provence and maple syrup. The elegant mouth balances the fruit sweetness nicely with broad and lengthy tannins tinged with smoked salt.
