North America | California | Birichino | Pinot Noir Boer Vineyard

Pinot Noir Boer Vineyard

VARIETAL
Pinot Noir

NOTES

VINEYARD: Nearly 1600 feet up the western slopes of the Gabilan Range, in the shadow of Pinnacles National Park, the Boer Vineyard owes its rare combination of geek and civilian appeal to a vanishingly rare mashup of soil types resulting from a spectacular salsa of geophysical activity. Boer was first planted in the 1960s by Phil Woodward and Dick Graff of Chalone, but is now the residence and backyard of Chalone’s vineyard manager, Richard Boer, who grafted it over to Pinot Noir decades ago. Chalone is replete with weathered spires of 23 million year old andesite lava flows from the Neenach Volcano, interlaced with even more ancient fossilized seabed, uplifted by tectonic subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate beneath the North American Plate on the San Andreas Fault. The granitic side of the soil equation provides richness, juiciness, heft, and a bit of grip. Yet thanks to that ancient uplifted submarine layer, giant chunks of limestone and dolomite litter the entire mountain range. Classicists justly associate calcareous soils with elegance, filigree and perfume. That unusual matrix, along with a wide 50 degree diurnal temperature shift that recalls the High Desert of the American Southwest, plugs 220 volts of clean solar power into every bottle. Boer, though it might sound unforgivably self-serving, has it all.

VINIFICATION: Open-top stainless steel tank native yeast fermentation (most de-stemmed, minority with stems included). Gentle pumpovers until dry, then pressed to neutral French barrique. 13 months elevage, and one racking before being bottled unfiltered.