KISTLER PINOT NOIR SONOMA COAST

Description

Our Pinot Noir Clones

Our approach to Pinot Noir is very similar to Chardonnay, but we have two clones. For the last 25 years, we’ve been working on selecting which of the two we preferred, and we finally came to the conclusion that the answer was both. We’ve been planting our newer Pinot Noir Vineyards with a field mix of the two selections of late, giving deference to neither and laying the groundwork for our next generation of Pinot Noirs to be as transparent to site, and their relativity to each other, as are our Chardonnays. Both selections are marked by very low yields, small berries, great concentration and color in the fruit and a propensity to hold their natural acids during ripening.

Back in the 1990, Kistler’s reputation was largely fueled by Robert Parker, who was the only wine critic other than Steve Tanzer invited to review the wines annually, and Parker gushed over them. Parker said in the Wine Advocate, “If the Kistler Winery could be magically transported to the middle of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, it would quickly gain a reputation as glorious as any producer of Burgundy Grand Crus.”

 The New York Times by Isaac Asimov titled “A Cult Winemaker Tinkers with Success.” Asimov says, “For more than 30 years, restraint was not a quality remotely associated with Kistler. As Kistler’s lush, exuberant style was widely emulated, it became one of the first modern California cult wineries.” Asimov notes that in recent years the tastes of Steve Kistler have evolved and he is striving for elegance and energy rather than power, and wines that are more in tune with food.

The wines are composed of both French Dijon and heritage clones. They undergo extended maceration and cuvaison up to four weeks, and are aged 14 months in 100% new French oak barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered.