Wine Specs
Vintage
2018
Varietal
Pinot Noir
Appellation
Eola Amity Hills
Harvest Date
September 19th
Alcohol %
13
2018 La Belle Pinot Noir
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
La Belle is a special wine club offering that is made in very limited quantities. The 2018 La Belle expresses the balance and finesse of the PN777 clone grown on Gelderman-Jory soils in block 3. The wine is nuanced with bright floral and raspberry notes, some mineral and rose petal qualities, and velvety tannins, a tribute to the qualities that people admire in fine Burgundy.
Vineyard Notes
La Belle 2018 comes entirely from select rows in Block 3 of Lingua Franca Estate. The block was planted with specially selected material from a Russian River vineyard by Larry Stone for its exceptional record for this clone.
Production Notes
La Belle was harvested and then destemmed entirely to produce a silky wine with seamless texture. Our destemmer is also a grape sorter, and only whole berries are selected for the fermenting tanks. The grapes were fed bin by bin, not pumped, into a 5-ton concrete fermenting tank. Fermentation began with gentle pump overs and included one or two punch downs towards the end of the cuvasion. Pigeage is done traditionally by foot. After fermentation, the wine aged in a combination of 22% new and 78% old French oak barriques for 12 months and four in tank, prior to bottling.
Food Pairing Notes
The 2018 La Belle Pinot Noir is a bright and floral wine with a bit more structure than the same wine from the 2017 vintage. It should be enjoyed with elegant, more aromatic dishes, such as roasted chicken, pheasant, or quail. For a vegetarian dish, it goes well with sautéed chanterelles, or other mushroom and grain combinations, like chanterelles or hedgehog mushrooms in quinoa, or wild rice with black walnuts and truffle butter, hazelnut crusted baked salmon, grilled veal chops with rosemary. If served with lamb, it should be a rack of spring lamb or a lamb loin perhaps lightly seasoned with Herbs de Provence, or a butter flavored with herbs, garlic or truffle.
