2014 Lucia, Soberanes Vineyard Pinot Noir
Santa Lucia Highlands, California
With generations of farming history in Monterey County, and a commitment to making exceptional wines, The Pisoni Family hand-crafts the Lucia wines from the Pisoni, Garys’ and Soberanes Vineyards of the Santa Lucia Highlands.
THE VINEYARD
The Soberanes Vineyard is the latest joint venture between the Pisoni and Franscioni families. Situated on the Santa Lucia Highlands bench adjacent to the Garys’ Vineyard and named “one of the appellation’s most esteemed properties” by the Wine Enthusiast, the site features tightly spaced vines and is planted to 33 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah. The clonal material planted in the loamy, rocky soil is very diverse and features over a dozen of the most renowned heritage selections from California and Burgundy.
WINEMAKING
The Pisoni Family is committed to raising and hand-crafting exceptional wines. The limited-production Lucia wines are created using classic, gentle and thoughtful winemaking techniques. Hand-picked and sorted grapes are fermented on native yeasts and aged in carefully selected French oak barrels. Our state-of-the-art winemaking facility uses gravity flow as part of a custom design conceived to merge the estate vineyards and winery. This affords us complete control of the farming and winemaking process, ensuring consistently superior quality.
THE VINTAGE
The 2014 growing season in Monterey County was one of the driest on record. This was the third consecutive drought year, and continued lack of rainfall led to early season stress on the vines. The result was smaller canopies but very phenologically developed fruit. We made multiple, careful pruning passes through each of the vineyards, dropping large amounts of fruit to balance these smaller canopies with the crop levels. Winter and Spring were mild, which led to an early bud break. A cool summer slowed the growing season, and harvest began in the first weeks of September, much earlier than is typical for the AVA. The 2014 wines possess great elegance, vibrance, and intensity.
TASTING NOTES
Effusive and floral, the 2014 Soberanes Vineyard Pinot Noir displays its characteristic elegance and high-toned floral notes with an underlying fruit core of boysenberry, wild strawberry and slightly earthy notes of forest floor. Many of these aromatics are the result of the underlying rocky soil, enhanced by higher amounts of whole clusters incorporated during fermentation. On the palate the wine has rich tannins and clean acidity—combined they give it structure to age for over a decade.