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Featured Today
2005 Pinot Noir, Haynes Vineyard, Napa Valley
Released
March 2010, 174 cases produced
Internet-Direct Price: $45.00 / 750 mL bottle
The cool 2005 vintage was beset by weather early in the season. Frosts after budbreak and rain during flowering devastated the Pinot crop in the North Coast counties, with some of our growers losing 75% of their average crop.
Over the years the vines at the Haynes Vineyard have sailed along largely unmolested by the vagaries of climate. In 2005 our section of Haynes delivered 80% of an average vintage, with the decrease almost entirely due to smaller berries than usual. We have seen before that a cool vintage and low juice to skin ratio at Haynes promises to give vins de garde - wines of depth and richness suitable for long aging. Our exceptional 2005 Haynes Pinot delivers on this promise.
It is always a good thing to exit on a high note: the 2005 vintage marks the last Westwood bottling of Pinot from this old and remarkable vineyard. In 2006 owner Duncan Haynes pulled the old vines from "our" block and replanted. We had 21 vintages to learn what to do with this special fruit and are proud of the 2005: a wine of power with finesse, characteristic soil-driven aromas, deceptively silky grip, and unrivaled ageability.
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Featured Today
2005 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Valley
Released
May 2010, 266 cases produced
Internet-Direct Price: $45.00 / 750 mL bottle
Late frost and stormy weather during set of Pinot Noir in Sonoma Valley in the 2005 vintage really hammered the crop size. At the beginning of the year we were contracted for enough fruit from our Sonoma growers to yield 11-15 barrels from each vineyard. Harvest was so light that we ended up with just two barrels of Nicholson Ranch Vineyard Pinot (all clone 777; there was no clone 115 fruit available for us). We ended up with just five barrels of Los Carneros Pinot (clones 114, 115, 667 & 777). Our Annadel Estate Vineyard - clones 115 & 667 - was expected to give us at least twelve barrels; we got just four.
Fortunately a blend of the wines from these three unique vineyards was equal or greater than the sum of its parts. So we made the blend - all Dijon clones. The earthy component came from a cool, windy site with deep clay-loam soil (Los Carneros), depth and structure from a warmer site on a shallow sandy ash (Nicholson) and beautiful spicy aromatics from a cold site with a very rocky soil (Annadel).
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