Cottonwood
Winery
Indie Cottonwood
Winery is Aaron Lieberman, assistant winemaker
at Owen Roe. You'd only expect David O'Reilly
(Owen Roe winemaker and co-owner) to have
the best, and he appears to have found it
in Aaron. The wines are just super. The new
Marina Piper Pinot noir 03 is a particularly
good deal, a lot of wine for the price. -jy
Asked about the dense,
black, complex, Pinot noirs he is just releasing, Aaron says:
"I want to marry new world pinot noir with burgundy. Ideally the wines I
make will be approachable as soon as I put them in the bottle, but will cellar
gracefully as well. Burgundians are not so worried about fruitiness in their
Pinot Noir. They are concerned that the wine has an excellent balance and great
vinous quality which improves with age. New world consumers and by necessity
winemakers are obsessed with fruit flavors. Taken to an extreme wine making techniques
that
enhance fruitiness can
compromise varietal character and the ability to cellar the wine. "
T
Tell
us about the oak you use, and why the tannins
in this wine are so fine grained and well
integrated, yet very much a part of the
whole of this big wine...
Aaron: "As for the oak; new
wood on the Marina Piper Pinot noir 02 was somewhere between 20 and
25%, mostly François Freres d'Oregon. The Brigette Katherine was closer
to 33% new oak, with one new barrel from Tonnellerie Cadus (Burgundy)
and the other from François Freres (St. Romain, Côte d'Or)."
"For Pinot Noir I like to use
only three-year air dried wood and medium to medium minus toast. The
rough staves are cut and then stacked outside, exposed to the weather
for three years. This treatment leeches out most of the harshest oak
tannins leaving behind what you perceive as " fine grained" tannins."
" Staying away from heavy toasting
limits the amount of sweet vanilla and caramel notes that, in my opinion,
are not appropriate for Pinot Noir. But this is not the complete story
of tannins."
"As far as controlling tannins
are concerned, cold soaking is a vital factor. Cold soaking accomplishes
two major objectives. First, the total time the juice is in contact
with the skins is extended. This allows for more extraction of skin
tannins (smoother than seed tannins) and anthocyanins (color). Whole
berries are important here to limit juice contact with seeds."
"Second, it lowers the initial
temperature of the fermentation. Peak fermentation temperature is very
important to the style of the wine. Temperatures under 90°F limit the
release of harsh tannins from the seeds."
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