2023 Clarice Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir

Description

96 POINTS – VINOUS – “…the 2023 Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands) is a stone-cold stunner. A rush of blue/purple fruit, deep, layered exotic spice tones and calibrated cooling acidity join together in a wine of supreme finesse. A slight decrease in the whole cluster usage in this even, long-hanging vintage worked so well. I can’t wait to taste this from bottle.”

96 POINTS – JEB DUNNUCK – “the 2023 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands is mostly sourced from the Garys’ Vineyard, with roughly a quarter from the Rosella’s Vineyard. It’s fantastic at this early stage, offering spicy aromas of ripe black raspberries, violets, and wet stones that continues to the palate with a crunchy youthfulness. It’s going to take its time loosening its grip, as it has good tension all the way through, but this is going to be a vibrant vintage for this wine….”

By the Numbers

• 71.4% new French Oak (4 Francois Freres 3 Year air–dried VTG M toast, 2 Boutes Grande Reserve 3-Year-Air-Dried Barrels) and two 1–year old French oak barrels.

• 71.4% Garys’ Vineyard, 28.6% Rosella’s Vineyard and 74.2% whole cluster fermented

• Non–inoculated primary and malolactic fermentation

• 14.02 alcohol

• 3.60 pH

• 5.8 g/l TA

No Numbers…Just Words 

The Clarice Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir is a wine designed to showcase the vintage and the broader Appellation rather than a specific vineyard. It is a purposeful blend, not a catch-all bottling of left over barrels (in fact, we had a number of barrels that we sold off in bulk). This wine perfectly reflects the cool, later harvest, 2023 vintage. Combining Garys’ Vineyard and its pronounced minerality with the red fruits from Rosella’s has led to a compelling wine – showing the best characteristics of each vineyard.