Miura Vinyard Monterey County Pinot Noir

Winemaker.

Nestled between the dry creek beds and hills in the southern Santa Lucia Highlands are the vines at the Pisoni Vineyard. Intensely monitored by Gary Pisoni and his family, this arid, though not particularly hot, vineyard faces east to southeast, soaking up morning and afternoon sunshine. The vines are planted in gravely sand soils that, combined with exposure, generates the concentrated, balanced fruit the vineyard has become known for. Miura winemaker Emmanuel Kemiji has the fruit transported to the winery in refrigerated trucks, keeping the grapes cool, who then sorts the fruit and moves them to small open-top stainless fermenters. The wine is made using wild yeasts and some whole clusters then aged for 12 months in 65% French oak barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered. The resulting wine is wonderfully complex with earthy tannins, sweet, ripe fruit and fabulous complexity.

Testing Nose.

Miura Pinot Noir is full of raspberries, stewed strawberries, and pink roses on the nose, balanced out with an earthy minerality, fresh herbs, and slight chocolate toasty oak notes. This is a light bodied wine, with a gentle tannin/acid structure. This wine is slightly off dry, and paired exceptionally well with my Thanksgiving feast, which included Turkey with Cranberry sauce, Stuffing, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms.