2009 Hanna Russian River Pinot Noir Wine

Our Slusser Road Vineyard is planted to two selections of Dijon Pinot Noir clones - 667 and 115. The vines are planted on 101-14 rootstock. Soils are sandy loam, and the vigor is low to moderate. Our Home Ranch Pinot is planted to three clonal selections from Torres, Cambria and Mondavi. The vines were planted 5 x 9 on 3309C rootstock. We picked out at 2.98 TPA at Slusser and 1.88 TPA at our Home Ranch; overall, slightly below normal.

Varietal: 100% Pinot Noir
Alcohol: 14.5%
pH: 3.53
TA: 0.53 g/100 mL
Residual Sugar: 0.29%

A mild, dry spring with far fewer frost nights than 2008 turned wet in late May. This moisture along with mild summer temperatures and ample early summer fog created some botrytis pressure but was also superb for flavor development. A September lightning storm the last morning of the Pinot harvest provided a scare, but luckily we finished picking before the first strike. Overall, the season was cooler than 2008 with 2550 degree days tallied at our Slusser Road Vineyard.