2007 Pinot Noir Dijon Clone 777

TASTING NOTES
The aromatics offer a complex blend of herbaceous character, including black tea leaf, geranium leaf and violets, and sweet fruits of strawberry, figs and cherry cola.  This is a well-balanced wine with upfront acidity and juiciness that leads into a supple, soft body that is rich in big, ripe fruit flavors of strawberries, bing cherries, raspberries and marionberries.  The tannins start off sweet and peak mid-palate with a slight sharpness that evolves into dry, integrated tannins with notes of cocoa powder and black pepper on the long finish.  This wine will improve over the next 1-2 years and age well for 7-8 years.

Pair with rare to medium rare roast beef, prime rib, Roast Chicken with Wild Mushroom Sauce, or any variety of poultry, including chicken, duck or turkey.

 

VINTAGE
2007 was a cool and challenging vintage with bloom around June 12, followed by a good set but a late veraison.  The fall rains came early, continuing steadily through the harvest with breaks between downpours.  We began harvest in Terres Basses on September 27 and picked at 24.5º Brix.  We finished harvest after 5.5” of rain on October 26.  Most of the vineyards were harvested between 23º and 23.5º Brix.  With good sanitary conditions in the vineyard due to very careful viticultural practices, we waited as long as we could before picking to ensure tannin ripeness.  We also made extensive use of our state of the art cold storage facility to dry and dehydrate the grapes before processing them, so the wines show great concentration, ripe tannins and lower levels of alcohol.  Both winemaker Thibaud Mandet and vineyard manager Daniel Fey demonstrated that knowledge, skill, and patience always pay off.

VINEYARDS
In the search for complexity in our wines we have planted a diverse selection of new clones from Dijon.  We currently have ten different clones of Pinot Noir planted on our Estate.  Starting in the early 1980’s, new Pinot Noir clonal material from the University of Dijon was made available to Oregon State University and UC Davis.  At WillaKenzie, we have decided to plant as many of these newly available clones as possible, including almost 15 acres of Dijon clone 777.  The diversity of clones allows us to maximize the palette of aromas and flavors in the wines.  The Dijon Clone 777 is one of the two clones found in the Kiana vineyard and wine as well as Triple Black Slopes.  The exclusive single bottling of 777 continues to be a Cellar Club favorite.

Yield:  2.5 tons per acre / Brix:  23.5° / pH:  3.50 / T.A.:  6.1

 

WINEMAKING
We used our state of the art, gravity-fed winery to achieve a fully extracted and complex Pinot Noir.  A cool maceration preceded the open-top Burgundian style fermentation for a total of 23 days of skin contact and daily punchdowns by ‘Bigfoot’, our pneumatic punchdown device.  The wine was then gravity fed directly to barrels where it underwent malolactic fermentation during the next 7 months.  The wine spent a total of 14 months in 50% new French oak barrels from a selection of four coopers.  This wine is unfiltered and unfined.

Alcohol:  13.8% / pH:  3.75 / TA:  5.6

 

To see tasting notes from previous vintages please visit our Trade Toolkit