2019 Cuvée Number One | Pinot Noir
$60.00
Evocative & silky Russian River Pinot Noir at its finest.
Exuding only the finest qualities the Russian River Valley has to offer, this beautifully pure Pinot Noir bursts floral hints of violets followed by notes of raspberry, red cherry, and sandalwood spice. Mid palate weight and concentration envelop the palate, all while red fruits and bright acid keep this wine light on its feet.
THE APPELLATION
Cuvée Number One delicately balances the finest attributes of two distinct areas within the Russian River appellation: Green Valley and Santa Rosa Plain. This cuvée is comprised of small, individual row selections of two Russian River Valley vineyards, each influenced by their own unique relationship with the cool, maritime microclimate of this hallowed AVA. Clusters ripen slowly, allowing them to achieve perfect ripeness, intense aromatics, velvet-like tannins and an array of red fruits of earthy characters.
THE CRAFT
Each small lot, separated based on clone, was harvested at night on September 14th and September 23rd. Upon delivery to the winery, each cluster was carefully hand sorted and de-stemmed in the cool, dawn hours of the day, then transferred to small, stainless steel open-top tanks for native fermentation. After ten days of cold-soaking, fermentation then began with twice daily gentle punch-downs by hand in order to extract the deep color, focused flavors, and notable structure of the wine. After more than 3 weeks in tank, the wine was transferred to 45% new French oak barrels, where full malolactic fermentation took place. This final blend of 42% clone 115, 28% Pommard, 21% clone 777, and 9% clone 667 was bottled unfined and unfiltered in September, 2020.
Alc: 14.3%
Cases produced: 350 (9L equivalent) – 750 mL
THE MEANING BEHIND THE NAME
My Cuvée Number One bottling represents my first appellation blend under Cattleya Wines. The grapes for Cuvée Number One are from the beautiful Russian River Valley. In 2014, I tested different blends between the few barrels of Pommard and 115 clones. Out of all the blends I created, the first blend was the one I chose to bottle, leading me to the name of this wine.