2018 Kiser Vineyard, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir

In our second year at Kiser we committed ourselves to spend more time in the vineyard to better understand this complex site. Historically the vineyard has been broken up into two sections — a lower and an upper. They are on different soils and ripen about 2 weeks apart. The upper block on the lighter shale soils tends to produce a more linear wine, whereas the lower block on colluvial clay-based soils produces a broader, denser wine. In October of 2018 we harvested our blocks at Kiser across three picking dates under perfect fall conditions. The clusters were some of the prettiest we brought into the cellar in a year marked by “best-evers.” We kept all three lots separate during the élevage (which lasted 16 months in barrel—6 months longer than is our usual protocol) but in the end found the most complete wine was a blend! As such, we put to bottle a single unfined/unfiltered Kiser bottling we feel encapsulates this Grand Cru-level site in its entirety. 

AROMA

fresh raspberry, violet, baking spice

FLAVOR

iron shavings, white pepper, crushed bing cherry

FOOD PAIRINGS

roast bone marrow w/ pink peppercorn, chicken + shiitake dumplings