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1998 Maison Grand Cru Pinot Noir |
 A
blend of the choicest single-vineyard barrels (70% Russian River Valley
and 30% Monterey County) with an eye towards crafting a wine that
clearly demonstrates Keith Rutz’s winemaking philosophy – to capture
all the intensity and essence of great California fruit without
sacrificing any structure, and put a distinctive French accent on the
wine. The grapes were hand picked, hand sorted, de-stemmed and
crushed into small, open-top fermentors. During
fermentation, the cap of solids was submerged several times a day to
extract layers of color and develop complex flavors. The wine was transferred via gravity flow to new French oak
barrels from Claude Gillet and Louis Latour, completed malolactic
fermentation and then were left to age in our cases until August.
Neither fined nor filtered.
The 1998 vintage of Maison Grand Cru Pinot Noir is bursting with copious quantities of lush plums and cherries intermixed with toasty spice, chocolate and leather. Long and lingering on the finish. 487 cases produced. Harvest Dates - Sept. 29 - Oct. 9 TA - .68 g/100ml Alcohol - 13.9% 100% Malolactic pH - 3.48 Bottling Date - 9/22/99 |