This product is no longer available. Please choose another vintage above.
Roco Wine - Marsh Estate - Pinot Noir 2012
Tasting notes
Dark cherry in color. Seductive Trade Route spices, fresh black cherry, and home canned plum with a tiny whiff of vanilla, toasted almonds, and sweet
cooked apple. Robust blast of deep black cherry fruit in the center palate. Rounds out with lovely silky tannins and long, bold, sweet flavors. Ripe plum with a deliciously creamy finish and a hint of chocolate-mint. This wine delivers on its promise of silky opulence from the beginning to end.
Vintage 2012
The 2012 vintage could be tagged as a "Mother Nature made these wines" sort of vintage for the most part. Bloom and fruit set traveled from normal to well below normal. Cold weather and some negative effects from hail drove yields generally down. But, that can be a GOOD thing as smaller clusters and good dry weather leads to ripe fruit for wine. When a grower cannot over crop their vineyards, all wineries can win with high quality.
The key challenge to the successful farmer this year was the fact that the period of July through October was the driest since record keeping began in the late 1800’s. Potential desiccation was further exacerbated by very dry, east winds coming out of Eastern Oregon/Washington’s high desert. This wind period was the longest I can remember in my 27 years of Oregon winemaking. Vines already starved for moisture will not fair well under these late fall conditions.
The key challenge to the successful farmer this year was the fact that the period of July through October was the driest since record keeping began in the late 1800’s. Potential desiccation was further exacerbated by very dry, east winds coming out of Eastern Oregon/Washington’s high desert. This wind period was the longest I can remember in my 27 years of Oregon winemaking. Vines already starved for moisture will not fair well under these late fall conditions.
Winemaking
ROCO Pinot noir is hand picked 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 about five 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 large tank press. The young wine is sent to barrel for Malo-lactic fermentation to soften the acidity and to add further complexity. After MLF, the wines are racked once to a mix of new one, two and three-yearold tight-grained, French oak barrels. The wines are aged in barrel for 18 or more months before bottling
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 large tank press. The young wine is sent to barrel for Malo-lactic fermentation to soften the acidity and to add further complexity. After MLF, the wines are racked once to a mix of new one, two and three-yearold tight-grained, French oak barrels. The wines are aged in barrel for 18 or more months before bottling
