R. STUART & CO. DAFFODIL HILL PINOT NOIR

Daffodil Hill is now our Estate Vineyard. When Judy and Phil Mickelson began planting this vineyard in 1997 in the Eola Hills, they had a vision, but we don’t think they could possibly have known what amazing wine would come from this site. It’s a beautiful site, to be sure. When we stand in the Dijon 114 block atop their vineyard, we are humbled. At 550-foot elevation, you’re enveloped in gorgeous pastoral peace with a spectacular coastal range to the west, just a slight wine, and then maybe a hawk screeching overhead. Four acres are planted in Dijon 667 down close to the barn. These give the wine its luscious mid-palate, tons of purple floral flavors and round, ripe black cherry. We often see these flavors in other Eola Hills vineyards, but nowhere do we see the same richness and weight as the fruit in Daffodil. The acidity is perfectly balanced.

We watch the vineyards particularly closely in the last month before harvest. We make our picking decisions based primarily on flavor, although of course we consider acid, ph, TA and brix. We taste the fruit every week and as we get closer, sometimes every day. When we decide the flavors are right, we call for the pick. The fruit comes in from the vineyard and the first thing we do is destem – without crushing – into small one-ton fermenters. We use natural proprietary yeast, which we’ve cultured for weeks from the vineyard samples. Including strains from our many vineyards in the yeast gives the wine welcome complexity, just like with a blended Pinot. Later in the fermentation process we delestage The result is large, soft tannins – which are just the kind we like. After delestage, we press off the juice and let it settle for before barreling. We rarely use new oak in our cellar, as we much prefer the gentle aging achieved with neutral French oak. Our goal for each wine is to have just the right amount of soft tannins, balanced with luscious fruit and bright acidity.