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Mount Eden

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Mount Eden Vineyards is a small, historic wine estate located on a 2000 foot peak in the Santa Cruz Mountain Appellation, about 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Founded in 1945, it is recognized as one of the original boutique California Winery properties, focusing on small lots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Mount Eden Vineyard has been continuously producing estate bottled Pinot Noir and Chardonnay longer than anyone else in California. Planted in austere, infertile Franciscan shale on a cool, exposed mountaintop, the low-yielding vineyards have consistently produced world class wines for over 50 years. Winemaker and Proprietor Jeffrey Patterson has been making wine at Mount Eden since 1981. His low yielding hillside vineyards are sustainable and dry farmed. Fermentation is done with native yeasts and fining and filtering is minimal if at all. The winery is completely solar powered.

James Laube on Mount Eden:  “IS MOUNT EDEN CALIFORNIA’S GREATEST VINEYARD? Every time I have a great aged Mount Eden wine – which is most of the time – I’m in awe of how well it develops. This is a unique property in the sense that all three of the major grapes grown there – Cabernet, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – not only are distinctive and classy, but they age incredibly well. Suppose if one were to only collect wine from one vineyard, Mount Eden would be a tough choice to beat.”

Eric Asimov on Mount Eden: “Mount Eden refuses to conform to the stylistic demands of today’s market, which emphasize power, lush fruit flavors and immediate gratification over nuance, minerality and balance. The cabernets are more sinewy and lean than rich and concentrated. The pinot noir, which is made in very small quantities, is light-bodied and graceful rather than sweet and plush. And, rather than flavors of oak, butterscotch, tropical fruit and popcorn, the Chardonnay offers captivating texture and subtle flavors wound around a core of lively acidity. It takes time to unravel, sometimes many years, which puts Mount Eden in the company of great historic California chardonnay producers like Stony Hill and Hanzell.”

Robert Parker on Mount Eden: “This iconic winery continues to offer wines with personalities and styles that set them apart (especially the estate wines) from just about anything else readers will taste from California.”

 

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Pinot Noir Estate (Archived) 2008

Martin Ray planted Pinot Noir at Mount Eden in 1945. The budwood came from Paul Masson’s original vineyard near Mount Eden. Because Masson was a good friend of the Louis Latour family of Burgundy, it is likely the selection came from one of Latour’s finest vineyards and was brought by Masson to California during the 1880s. The faith Ray demonstrated in this difficult red wine variety, at a time when America had little appreciation of fine wine, was remarkable. Today, Pinot Noir vines occupy seven acres of our estate vineyard and typically yield a meager one to one-and-a-half tons per acre.

Pinot Noir is the first variety harvested at Mount Eden, kicking off the vintage season. Using natural yeasts, fermentation is conducted in small open-top fermentors and extends ten to fourteen days, with the must punched down by hand. The new wine is immediately put into 75% new and 25% one-year-old French Burgundy barrels. It matures for eighteen months before being bottle unfined and unfiltered. Nothing is added; nothing is taken away.

Due to the soils in the vineyard, the Estate Pinot Noirs’ elegant, transparent style is more Burgundian than Californian, emphasizing wild strawberry, earth, blueberry and dill varietal characters. Cellaring the wine from five to twelve years pays handsome rewards.

Reviews
"There is not much color to the 2008 Pinot Noir Estate (light ruby, faded garnet), but the wonderful sweet cherry, currant and spring floral notes of the aromatics are endearing. With silky tannins, medium to full body, and a lot more flavor than the delicate color suggests, this wine is very approachable and probably best drunk over the next 7-8 years, although it might surprise me and last longer."
Robert Parker,Wine Advocate, Feb 2011

Review Score: 92


"Fragrant, delicate plum and black cherry fruit is pure, focused, complex, elegant and full-bodied. Very Burgundian in its weight and purity. Drink now through 2018. 969 cases made. –JL"
James Laube,Feb 2011

Review Score: 91 points


Country: United States
Region: Santa Cruz
Producer: Mount Eden
Product Code DB0451-08
Varietal Pinot Noir