2020 Winter’s Hill Pinot Noir Blanc

Crafting our first Pinot Noir Blanc gave us the opportunity to explore another aspect of the flavor and structure of Pinot Noir. We pressed the handpicked grapes using a “Champagne” cycle with our pneumatic press. In this cycle, the fruit is pressed very gently, with the absolute minimum of rolling or mixing of the grapes while in the press. This technique is extremely slow, requiring more than three hours to press one load of grapes, but it allowed us to extract the delicious juice and preserve the aromas of the wine, while minimizing the color and tannins that could be extracted from the skins. Just the faintest hint of salmon reminds you that this wine is 100% Pinot noir. We then fermented and aged the wine in French oak barrels to allow the wine to develop a rich texture and mouthfeel to balance the aromas and structure of the wine.