2014 North Valley Reserve Pinot noir

For me, I recall excitement among our peers in 2014 as the grapes came to maturity.  While I shared this enthusiasm I was also a little apprehensive as sugars began escalating quickly in mid September.  After all, we value this cool climate for many reasons including moderate temperatures during the end of the growing season.  We acknowledge that time on the vine is key to flavor development and hence our picking decisions were a bit of a dance between waiting for proper flavors while trying to avoid excessive ripeness and loss of nuance by harvesting just a little too late.  Ultimately we were very pleased with our picking decisions and the resulting wines.  This was confirmed during a retrospective tasting last May as the 2014 showed surprising brightness and youthful energy while still displaying yummy and graciously evolved aromatics.  “Expressive and delicious” summarized my tasting notes.