2002 Pinot Noir - Santa Rita Hills, Sanford & Benedict Vineyard
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It is with great pleasure that we release this 2002 bottling of Pinot Noir from the famed Sanford & Benedict vineyard. My ties to this vineyard go back to my earliest days in the valley (circa 1976), when I met Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict at their vineyard and winery and tasted their first vintages. It was evident even then that they had discovered a very special place to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
The vineyard quickly became revered by local winemakers, and when a few tons of Pinot Noir were made available to me in 1985, I jumped at the chance to work with the grapes. Some of the finest Pinot Noirs I have had the pleasure to make came from this vineyard in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
After the 1992 harvest a change in ownership of the vineyard resulted in the grapes becoming unavailable to me. It was this loss that inspired me to search for a nearby site to plant to Pinot Noir for a secure source of grapes, which I did in 1998 with the establishment of Fe Ciega Vineyard.
I chose to get my grapes from the same section I used before, which is planted to the Mt. Eden clone. The vines are now thirty years old and are at their peak of production.
The grapes were picked on September 24th at very ripe average Brix level of 25.6. We followed our traditional regime of destemming 100% of the grapes and crushing into small open top fermenters. After a fourteen day fermentation the wine was pressed off and settled in a tank before being transferred to barrels for aging. The wine aged in barrels until mid-December after which time the wine was lightly fined and filtered before being bottled on December 20, 2003.
The wine displays the classic Sanford & Benedict aromas of spice and briary forest floor. The moderate tannins and higher acidity will enable this wine to age four up to six to seven years after release. Serve with quail, duck, rabbit and game.
Rick Longoria, Winemaker
June 1, 2004
Composition: 100% Pinot Noir: Sanford & Benedict Vineyard
pH: 3.51
Alcohol by volume: 15.5%
Titratible acidity: .61 g/100 ml.
Production: 193 cases
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