2014 Ancient Waters Pinot Noir
ABOUT ANCIENT WATERS PINOT NOIR
One of our proprietary blends, Ancient Waters sources the highest quality fruit from Wapato Ridge Vineyard and the famed Shea Vineyard. Ancient Waters' name is derived from the marine sedimentary soils in which the vines are planted. Ancient Waters is a powerful wine that showcases the intense flavors possible in Pinot Noirs from the Willamette Valley.
WINEMAKING PROCESS
ROCO Pinot Noir is handpicked and then chilled overnight to 38 degrees Fahrenheit in our large cold room. The chilled bunches are gently de--stalked and the whole berries fall into smal 1.6 ton open fermenters. The berries soak for ten days before beginning ferment with our proprietary, house--cultured indigenous wine yeast. Soaking allows gentle extraction of color and flavor from the berry skin, and not the bitter-tasting seeds. The fermentations are hand-punched twice a day to mix the skins and fermenting juices. Ferments are allowed to reach about 28 degrees Celsius. A post-fermentation soak occurs until the wine is just right for removing from the skins and seeds. At that time the ferment is gently pressed in our modern tank press. The young wine is sent to barrel for malolactic fermentation to soften the acidity and to add further complexity, then racked once to mix of new and three-year-old, tight-grained, French oak barrels. The wines are aged in barrel for 18 or more months before bottling.
2014 VINTAGE NOTES
The 2014 growing season started out beautifully and stayed that way to the end. The gentle warm weather allowed the grape flowers to pollenate in large numbers resulting in many grape clusters. The summer was dry and sunny but ended in some rain. These cold rain events at the end of August and mid-September were very welcomed. The precipitation perked the vines up delivering extraordinary fruit. The fruit was harvested from September 11th to October 5th. The sparkling wine grapes showed ripe fruit and high acidity.
WINEMAKER TASTING NOTES
This wine has a complex cornucopia of toasted French oak, marionberry, vanilla, coriander and Malabar peppercorn on the nose with underpinnings of perfectly cured meat. The palate is full of ripe dates, black raspberries and caramelized sugar. Pure velvet mouth-feel with a finish that has a lovely persistence of fruit and spice. -Rollin Soles, Winemaker
94 James Suckling
93 Wine Enthusiast
92 Wine Spectator