Aubin Cellars
2009 Verve Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir •Crane Vineyard
California: Sonoma Coast
Mission Briefing
Pure Silk
Smooth as silk, delicious, and oh so elegant, today’s 2009 Verve Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir was a delightful surprise at our recent tasting panel. We carefully vet each wine that we showcase, and all of us were delightfully surprised by this lovely wine.
We’ve been featuring Pinot Noir from the Crane Vineyard, from a small number of producers, for the last few years. Each time that we do, we are impressed with the wonderful quality of the fruit. Today’s winery makes exceptional use of this great fruit, delivering a wine that is bright, elegant and very food-friendly. With plenty of fruit and wonderful aromatics, this wine is a treat for the senses.
Enjoy this expressive wine right out of the bottle, but decant for an even more elegant experience. Pair with a lovely meal for a better experience, still.
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Deep sanguine red with perfect clarity through the slightly darker heart of the wine. At the edges, a pretty light pink ring runs around the wine. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Shy at first, but after a few minutes of swirling - or some extended decanting - this wine begins to unpack bright aromas of young black cherry, black tea, warm earth, pomegranate, cola, cranberry and sweet plum. |
| Taste: | Very soft and elegant on entry, ushering in black cherry, pomegranate, young blackberry, cranberry, black tea leaf, tobacco leaf, kola nut and slate. |
| Finish: | Very smooth, with long sustaining flavors and a balanced, elegant and delicious finish. |
| Pairing: | Lamb chops in a plum reduction would be an exquisite pairing with this elegant wine. |
What the Winery Says
Hand harvested grapes — 100 % destemmed. Fermented in an open top T-bin. Cap manually punched down four times a day during fermentation. 3 days cold soak and 21 days total cuvaison average. Aged an average of 34 months in French oak barrels. 25% new oak from Tonnellerie Rousseau. Bottled unfined and unfiltered on August 9th, 2011.
This vintage of our Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir perfectly reflects the cool climate vineyards from where it comes. Bright acidity underlies the juicy red cherry flavors that predominate; but hints of red raspberry add lovely high tones. Clean, attractive briary and floral notes mingle with hints of savory spices and tea leaves; and brown sugar and milk chocolate linger in the finish from the new Rousseau barrel used for aging. The soft fine grain tannins of this vibrant and yet accessible wine allow for immediate pleasure.
- Vineyard
- Crane Vineyard, south of Santa Rosa
- Appellation
- Sonoma Coast, Sonoma
- Yield
- 2.8 tons per acre average
- Vine
- 8 years average, alluvial sandy clay loan, irrigated
- Clones
- 777, Cruz
- Release Date
- November 15th, 2012
About the Winery
Jérôme Aubin, has been working in the wine industry in France and the United States for the last 15 years importing French oak barrels and tanks from Rousseau of Burgundy, St Martin of Bordeaux, Allary of Cognac, A&K of Missouri and Balazs of Hungary. In 2008 and 2009, Jerome started to import and distribute wine concrete tanks from Nomblot of Burgundy and stainless steel tanks from Lejeune and Nomblot. He was able to start a new brand of barrels - Artisan Barrels Selection - in 2010, working closely with coopers in Hungary and France who make the barrels following certain specifications. His ongoing career in the barrel business enables him to visit yearly over 300 wineries in California, Oregon, Washington, New York States in the United States and British Columbia, Ontario provinces in Canada. From these numerous barrel tastings, he acquired a taste for different styles of wines, expressing in each a unique quality. He sought to benefit from this fruitful interaction with winemakers and the visits to various wine producting regions to inspire his own style and select the best possible grapes.