Wines> Library Wines> 1997 Arcus Estate Pinot Noir
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ORIGIN: Arcus, meaning “bow” in Latin, describes our estate vineyard that wraps around both sides of a small valley in the Red Hills of Dundee. With such a distinctive terroir, this wine from a single vineyard rewards Pinot Noir devotees with an expansive nose, elegant finish, and outstanding expression of true Pinot Noir crafted in Burgundian tradition with New World techniques.
VINEYARD: Vines at Arcus Estate vineyard are planted on a very steep slope which makes farming difficult, but produces intensely flavored rich fruit which yielded only 1.1 tons per acre. From 1986 plantings of the Pommard clone, the grapes in Arcus Estate were harvested with great ripeness in mid September 1997.
WINEMAKING: A unique finesse is achieved by the delicate and gentle handling of grapes throughout the winemaking process in our 100% gravity flow facility. This wine was vinified traditionally by sorting the fruit, cold soaking the grapes with 25% whole clusters, using native yeast and gently punching down one to three times a day. The wine was racked to new medium-toasted Remond French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and was aged for 11 months. Neither fined nor filtered, the 1997 Arcus Estate was bottled in late August 1998.
TASTING NOTES: Deep burgundy in color, our 1997 Arcus Estate displays a nose of violets, carnations, very ripe raspberries, allspice, liquid minerals and sweet oak. Very concentrated fruit surrounds the rich fine-grained tannins and ripe acidity. The very lush mid palate and long finish make 1997 Arcus Estate complex, intense and a classic Pinot Noir that will drink beautifully and improve over the next ten years.
This vintage produced only 428 cases, available in our unique four-bottle laydown box, and was offered in 3-liter bottles in limited quantities.