AROMAS & FLAVORS
The 2019 T Anchor Ranch Pinot Noir is a lush plum-colored red wine highlighting aromas of spiced cherry compote, cocoa powder, and cloves. The palate expresses notes of ripe cherries and crisp cola. With a long finish and balanced acidity, this wine displays lingering notes of berries with hints of barrel spices and dry roasted vanilla bean.
WINEMAKING
We harvest our grapes based on the ripeness of the tannins. For Pinot Noir this usually occurs between 24.5-27.0 Brix. The clusters were then gently de-stemmed with no crushing. The must was cold-soaked in open-top stainless-steel fermenters for four days. Each tank was manually punched down throughout maceration. Upon completion of primary fermentation and maceration, the free-run wine was transferred to a tank for settling. Next, the individual lots were racked to French oak barrels and aged for 18 months.
VINTAGE
The 2019 growing season was notably cooler than average through spring and summer, but a burst of heat around Labor Day gave us the push we needed to increase Brix levels to their seasonal average. The disease pressure was low, but an anomaly of hard frost the first week of October forced us to bring the fruit in a hurry. Mother Nature delivered a roller coaster of weather, but with it came nuance and diversity of fruit expression.
