2015 Marsh Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir 1.5L
ABOUT THE MARSH ESTATE PINOT NOIR
Since 2010, ROCO has produced some of our juiciest and fresh fruited Pinot Noirs from this low elevation jewel located in the eastern portion of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Tucked just west of the Dundee Hills, Marsh Vineyard starts at a 250ft elevation and ascends steeply to a peak elevation of 320ft at the end of the exposed ridgeline. This exposure ensures maximum sunlight, and combined with soil derived from marine sandstone, gives the wine an intense real cherry and raspberry front with a black pepper finish. A collectible wine that is drinkable now, but can lay down for a number of years.
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 small 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, than 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.
2015 VINTAGE NOTES
This growing season was one of those warm, sunny experiences that we all desire in the often challenging Willamette Valley. Other than a spot of high temperatures, nearly the entirety of August punched in the 80's with clear blue skies and virtually no precipitation occurred all summer long. The vines were obviously struggling under persistent sunshine and no precipitation, but then August 28-30th brought us a refreshing 1.3 inches of rain! This rainfall perked up the vines, the acid bounced back and fruit flavors became livened once again. We received one more shot of cool rain on September 17th with freezing levels down to 5500 feet. These cloudy cool wet events at the end of the growing season helped to lift the character, and provided a nice zip of flavor. We were able to pick at optimum ripeness beginning around September 4th through September 23rd. The 2015 wines are chock full of great fruit flavor, structure and a mouthwatering dose of delicious freshness and acidity.
WINEMAKER TASTING NOTES
Strawberry pie and lovely Cassis fruit from the front of the palate. Amazingly this wine transitions to even more fruit mid palate with that Yamhill-Carlton AVA cracked black pepper spice. The finish is one of ROCO's longest in memory. -Rollin Soles, Winemaker
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