Morgan Twelve Clone 2006

Winemaker's Notes:

Tasting Notes: Leather, toast, minerals and vanilla, with cherry-berry, rose petal, and some spicy/earthy notes, in a balanced and integrated style. Medium bodied and broadly structured on the palate. The Santa Lucia Highlands typically produces wines of large-scale ripe fruit and a structured elegance. This cool vintage and the Morgan winemaking team created a wine with finely detailed fruit and a refined, high-toned style. Winemaking Notes: Grapes are hand-sorted in the vineyards and at the winery and are completely de-stemmed. Whole-berry fermentations are inoculated with RC212, D254, and Assmanshausen yeasts, and some native yeast fermentations. Small, open top fermenters with manual punch downs are utilized for optimum extraction while maintaining an elegant structure. The primary fermentation finishes in 10-12 days. The wine is transferred to a combination of medium and medium+ toast Burgundy barrels, of which 40% are new, for malo-lactic fermentation and 11 months of aging. The wine was bottled, unfined, in August 2006. Vineyard Notes: The cool The Morgan 2005 Twelve Clones Pinot Noir is produced from top quality Santa Lucia Highlands Vineyards. Morgan's organically farmed Double L Vineyard is 40% of the 2006 blend, and contributes complexity with 12 different clonal selections of Pinot Noir. The cool Monterey climate and strong Salinas Valley winds combine to form a very long growing season, creating intense, ripe flavors with balancing acidity. Vintage Notes: The 2006 vintage started late and ran about a month later than normal, due to a cold, wet spring that delayed the fruit set. The summer weather was typical for the region. The Pinot Noir harvest eventually finished in late October, with average crop loads showing intensely flavored fruit that retained much of its natural acidity. Technical Notes: Appellation: Santa Lucia Highlands Alcohol : 14.2% pH : 3.58 TA: 5.7 g/L Aging: 11 months Oak: 40% new French Barrels Release: Fall 2007 Return to Morgan wine list