2021 Swan Clone Pinot Noir

Description

Bouchaine’s 100-acre estate vineyard lies on the southern border of Napa Valley’s Carneros district, overlooking the San Francisco bay with the financial district in the distance. Fog, wind, and the cold night time temperatures of this unique geographical area lend a distinctive regional identity to our Pinot Noir.

Growing Season
The 2021 growing season will be remembered as a winemaker’s vintage. Not too cold, not too hot, not too wet, and no frost. However, we were in the grips of a multiyear drought. While we enjoy dry farming when we have average rainfall, in vintages where the rainfall is half of average (like 2021) we do irrigate to allow for ideal shoot growth and ripening. Bouchaine is lucky to have a huge reservoir so we were able to irrigate early in the season to get our vine canopies full. Drought conditions do have some positives when it comes to winemaking as they bring us smaller berries with beautifully concentrated flavors at harvest. We also lucked out with consistent weather throughout the summer giving us ideal ripening at an even pace. A little sun, a bit of water, and a lot of hard work in the vineyard allowed us to bring in a killer 2021 vintage!

Vinification
All fruit is hand-harvested at night, preserving berry integrity. After a 7-day cold soak, fruit is fermented using native yeast in open-top tanks. Postfermentation, the wine is drawn off and the must placed into a basket press for gentle pressing. The vineyard blocks are kept separate and allowed to evolve in French oak barrels, with the most intriguing barrels blended together in summer to showcase the finest expression of the Swan Clone from our estate.