Rivers-Marie Joy Road Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, USA 2021

Though the Pinot Noir was new to us in 2021, we’ve been working with this west Sonoma Coast site for nearly a decade. The Pinot side is three acres spread across 8 blocks. We have attempted to separately ferment as many of them as possible to get an overall impression of where the best quality lies. Given the complexities of this, it will take us a while to get a handle on the entire site but early indications show a crunchy, red fruited wine with high toned white flowers, sandalwood and spearmint.

We coveted the Pinot Noir from Joy Road well before we even started working with the Chardonnay in 2013. Having spent many years walking the Chardonnay block before harvest and sneaking in for a little taste of the various blocks of Pinot fruit along the way, we felt we had a pretty good sense of the entire vineyard. The Chardonnay block here is only a third of an acre and most of the Pinot blocks aren’t much bigger so combining several blocks into one ferment was the pre-harvest goal. As we got closer to picking, we couldn’t get a handle on exactly how we wanted to blend blocks so we ended up fermenting everything separately, 7 lots across 3 acres. It was a lot more work but ultimately gave us great insight into the vineyard character, upper slope vs. lower blocks, same clone/different rootstock, Dijon vs. heritage clones, etc. There were a few surprises along the way but that also makes this first edition a much stronger wine. Surprisingly strong and surprisingly weak blocks in 2021 were properly slotted to this new single vineyard designate and our Sonoma Coast bottling. In character and proximity it is closest to Summa, red fruited and higher toned with a lifted white flower and sandalwood perfume and a crunchy, cranberry tinged palate. The acidity carries the finish which feels typical for this western Occidental neighborhood. We ended up bottling about 60% of the wine as this new vineyard designate, curious to see what we get with a little more knowledge and a fresh crack at it in 2022.