2019 Avni Pinot Noir
Date Picked: September 14-23, 2019
Finished Wine: Alcohol: 13%, pH: 3.55
Suggested Retail: $40
Estate grown Avni 2019 Pinot Noir is focused and concentrated with an overlying elegance and silky mouthfeel. The large proportion of complexly flavored, savory and mineral upper block fruit combines seamlessly with the rounder flavors of Pommard clone on Jory soils. Though the vineyard was still recovering from drought, the fruit quality was nearly perfect, as temperatures were moderate at harvest, and we avoided the later rains.
Vinification
Hand-harvested Avni Pinot Noir 2019 was fermented with 14% whole cluster fruit. The grapes were fed by bin into medium sized stainless steel and cement fermenting tanks. Pigeage was done traditionally by foot to ensure a gentle extraction of tannins. The fermentation was with wild yeast. The wines aged in 21% new and 79% old French oak barriques for 12 months and four in tank prior to bottling. 11% of the total, PN115 from Block 9, was fermented using 100% whole cluster carbonic fermentation.
2019 Vintage
The vineyard was recovering from drought so that the harvest again brought in low yields but of excellent quality and intensity. Harvest proceeded with fruit in perfect balance. Lingua Franca Avni Pinot 2019 is our most layered yet, with distinctive fruit sourced from the upper blocks, blended equally with fruit from the deeper Jory soils of our lower blocks, where vines develop round textures and red fruit flavors.
