DAVID NOYES WINES Freestone Hill Pinot Noir 2009

~ winemaking offers a conversation with the natural world; wine speaks to seasons past, the earth, its bounty and its pleasures~

Vintage

2009

Appellation

Russian River

Vineyard

Freestone Hill Vineyard

Varietal

100% Pinot Noir

Alcohol

13.9%

pH

3.70

Aging

40% new French oak, from coopers Mercurey and Remond.

Bottled

May, 2011, 18 months in barrel

Pairing

Still young, at as I write this in November 2012, I’d pair this concentrated flavorful wine with nut-crusted salmon, Southern fried chicken, or something middle eastern… pomegranates, honey and almonds perhaps.

Production

120 Cases

Winemaker’s Notes

“Rich and inviting, the 2009 Freestone Hill opens with aromas of licorice, ripe red fruits, (raspberry and current), caramel and toasted nuts. The palate likewise explodes with flavor, juicy red fruits, raspberry preserve, but also firm acidity and a decided mineral streak that speaks of both the ocean and coastal mint.”

The Dutton’s ‘Freestone Hill’ vineyard is located just west of Freestone and about a mile south of the old logging town of Occidental. The vineyard benefits, (or suffers, depending upon one’s perspective), from cool, often wet spring weather that serves to slow shoot growth and impede set. This climate virtually insures tiny berries on small clusters, (low yields!). By late summer however the afternoons bake with the August sun that brings us Sonoma’ns out to the coast…The small berries ripen quickly and much care must be taken to harvest before they simply dry on the vine! When all goes well, as it did in 2009, the result is a concentrated, distinctive wine that combines the racy minerality of coastal fruit with the decadence of a sun-ripened blackberry picked on a lazy summer’s day.

~An intersection of soil, season, time and care The moment lingers~