Ribbon Ridge Vineyard Pinot noir Dewey Kelly 07

Once again, the wine is extraordinarily soft and complex. Raspberries and red cherries highlight a juicy foundation of black cherry and plum. The oak provides a sturdy backbone and a bit of toasted spice, but the fruit dominates from the start to the long, elegant finish. In our opinion, this wine is ahead of where the 2003 was at this point. It has good bones and great fruit, so while drinkable now, it will get better with bottle age and be a cellar favorite for the next decade. Total production was 300 cases. - the winery

This wine is a stunner, and a worthy successor to our highly rated 2003 Estate Pinot Noir. The vineyard continues to produce beautiful fruit, even while growing conditions caused other vineyards to struggle. We did have some of the early season problems that plagued the entire valley, but the only lasting impact was 50% lower yields than we had targeted. We avoided the mid-season dehydration that, coupled with the fall rains, caused so much splitting in many vineyards and resulted in moldy clusters. Our fruit came in perfectly ripe and clean. We did see clusters with a mixture of large and small berries, referred to as hens-and-chicks, but everything ripened uniformly, and was harvested September 25, 2004.

"Winemaking was essentially the same as in 2003: five days of a whole-berry cold soak followed by a relatively low-temperature fermentation with indigenous yeast. The free-run juice was then transferred into French oak barrels and the remaining must was lightly pressed before going into French oak barrels. The wine stayed undisturbed in barrels for 10 months before it was racked to a blending tank in late July." - the winery