2024 Pinot Noir

If the saying “Time flies when you are having fun” is true, then I have been living the dream for the past quarter century.  Let me explain.  Our first vintage of Pinot Noir from the Sisters Vineyard the 2000.  That makes this edition, the 2024 vintage, the twenty-fifth from Sisters Vineyard.  Seems like just yesterday we were crushing the grapes for the first time at McManis Family Vineyards, where I produced my wine from 1998 through 2010, before moving to Amador.  Then again maybe my uncle was right when he said, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper.  It goes faster at the end.”  It feels like time is going by so much faster today.  In any event we have a long history with this vineyard and like the flavors it provides.

The Sisters Vineyard is one of the southernmost vineyards in the Cuttings Wharf Road neighborhood in Carneros.  The reason it is the southernmost is that any vine planted further South will bear the brunt of salt intrusion from the San Pablo Bay.  Here the vines are bathed in the daily breezes, some may call it wind, coming off the bay.  Mornings are often shrouded in fog until close to noon.  But it is this maritime influence that provides the character we gently coax from the grapes and into the wine.