Translucent medium ruby. Aromatically it's classic cool-climate Carneros: ripe plum and wild strawberry up top, rhubarb and dried herb underneath, with a savory spice note that keeps the fruit honest. The palate runs bright rather than plush — cherry, pomegranate, and cranberry carried on firm acidity, with supple, fine-grained tannins and a French-oak spice frame (aged roughly ten months, around a third new) that stays in a supporting role. The finish is red-fruited and lifted, closing on spice and acid rather than weight.
The story here is dirt and time. Dr. Tony Truchard — a Texas Army physician — bought an abandoned prune orchard in Carneros in 1973 when the local wisdom said the cold, salty, shallow-clay ground would never ripen quality grapes. He engineered around it with clay reservoirs and early drip irrigation and became one of the pioneers who put Carneros on the map as Napa's first true cool-climate AVA. His oldest Pinot vines date to 1974, among the oldest commercially producing Pinot Noir in Napa. The family still sells about 80% of its fruit to more than 20 premier wineries and keeps only the best 20% for its own label — so this is estate fruit off mature, proven vines from a grower who could sell every cluster elsewhere but chooses to bottle the top slice himself.
