Our winemaker, wine grower and vineyard manager have recently launched a blog called Ultimate Pinot.

Why start a blog? Because we spend every working day trying to grow and make exceptional Pinot Noir, and we think that our frank discussions about what that entails may be of interest. Our jobs are part art and part science, involving data analysis and extrapolation, experience and intuition. Each year we attempt to solve a problem with many variables. And we want to share that process with you.

We began practicing in August 2006. Our goal was to try our hands at blogging and create a backlog -- a small archive of at least a dozen posts. Our archive went on-line with the launch of our blog, so we had no comments on those posts. We invite your comments on that archival material as well as on more current posts.

What did we learn? First, sometimes weeks just flew past without our having produced any blog postings -- it’s often hard to find the time to write. Second, we wrote a little formally at first until we learned to relax and just present snapshots of our situations. Now we approach each posting as part of an ongoing conversation – in fact, some postings are actual conversations that we wrote down. We’d appreciate your feedback on that format.

Our one absolute: beware of absolutes! Please. So many of our decisions and practices are site specific, pertaining just to one vineyard, or only to an individual block, row or vine. Those decisions are also vintage dependent. Every year is the same in one sense -- it’s unique! Even the vineyard, which is a year older with every vintage, presents a moving target.

To prescribe one-size-fits-all farming practices is to totally deny that the best viticulture must be tailor-made to the site. Is irrigation good or bad? It depends on the site. The same goes for winemaking. We deal with each wine on an individual basis.

Robert Stemmler 2005 Nugent Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley

96 POINTS
Male: Gorgeous wine with notes of raspberry, plum, smoke and spices. Very cool climate characteristics. Elegant and refined.
Female: Bold and complex waves of exotic spices and nice red fruit aromas through mid palate. Tea and black fruit on the long finish. Well balanced.

In a way, Pinot lovers are adventurers on a quest, always seeking that next great and best ever Pinot Noir. They are willing to taste through a lot of wines to find it. Some may call us obsessed. So it was with our Pinot Noir Shootout panel...

Our panel tasted 267 wines.

The 6th Annual Pinot Noir Shootout included Pinots from around the globe, including France, Italy, Australia (Tasmania too), and New Zealand. Stateside, California and Oregon dominate the wine submissions; however, Pinot Noirs also came in from Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York.

6th Annual Pinot Noir Shoot Out website

SUSTAINABLE WINEGROWING

We believe sustainable winegrowing goes above and beyond the methods of organic farming and focuses on sustainability as a long-term goal. Sustainability by definition is much more encompassing and far reaching than organic farming which means no use of synthetic chemicals, focusing on the entire environment, watersheds, habitats, and ecosystems within the entire operation. This deep, personal commitment plays a vital role in the integrity and quality of every bottle of our estate grown wines and the community in which we all live.

Our Natural Winegrowing Techniques
We encourage cover crops and add organic matter to naturally replenish the soil with nitrogen and increase diversity of flora and fauna while preventing erosion. These cover crops also reduce need for fumigation and support beneficial insects for pest management; they help conserve water and soil, creating the basis for sustained production and fine quality wines.

We encourage the proliferation of natural predators to control vine pests and rodents.

We use recycled water for irrigation.

We reduce insect pests, powdery mildew and bunch rot through leaf removal and canopy management. Character and balance in the grapes are enhanced by improved sunlight and air penetration.

We crop thin and remove shoots to naturally control vigor and limit yield per vine, increasing flavors and aromas.

Our ecosystems and sustainable winegrowing programs work in harmony, with each element playing an important role in the integrity and quality of our estate grown wines. As part of our commitment, every person, from vineyard management to production to administration, is responsible for maintaining and introducing conservation and sustainable programs. Erosion control, cover crops, energy and water conservation and waste reduction measures are just some of the practices integrated into our daily routine. Such practices require a high degree of management of biological resources, and a firm commitment to long-term sustainable growth.