2017 was a tale of two growing seasons. We started the year with a flood that saturated the soils and led to a late spring, but all worries of a late vintage vanished with the warm summer. 2017 was harvested close to normal with ripe flavors and only 2007 and 2015 had more heat accumulation in the last 20 years. 2017 will also be remembered for the wine country fires. While devastating to our community the wines were not affected since all grapes were harvested before the fires occurred and were unaffected.

Due to its proximity to the coast this Comptche Pinot typically exhibits cool climate characters, but 2017 being a very warm year we see signs of both regions. The cool summer brought us red currant, blueberries and a bit of funk and leather. A couple of warm weeks in early August added ripe cherries, dried fruit character and some perfume notes. We find this wine is particularly fun to decant and watch as it develops over a couple hours.

The grapes were harvested early in the morning, brought to the winery and hand sorted. They were destemmed into half ton inventors and allowed to cold soak for a week, punched down twice a day during that period. Once inoculated, punch downs continued until the wine was pressed, a few days before fermentation completed. Wines were then transferred to barrels and stirred once a month until malolactic fermentation was complete. The wine was not found to need any fining and was bottled 9 months later.