2013 L'Espérance Pinot Noir

SOLISTE…THE NEXT CHAPTER

Introducing the Magnificent 2013 Vintage
Exceptional in every way…A Tour de Force!

In 2005, we made our first Pinot Noir from the family vineyard (only 136 cases produced, that’s it!) located in a unique site that we believed would grant us the ability to craft wines with a style that would satisfy our infatuation for the great Burgundies that we love. In 2009, from the same site, we challenged ourselves to make our Pinot Noirs from single vineyard, single clone, and allocate a single cooperage barrel house in France to deliver uncompromised focus to each wine. The MonoClone® was born and we registered the trademark to protect our beliefs.

Having said that, we did not become stubborn about the MonoClone or infatuated by the idea, the wines had to deliver. If they did not, we would have gone back to blending the clones. Our MonoClone focus has produced spectacular wines, and so here we are, 8 years later with the 2013 harvest and Renaissance.

The 2013 vintage had what we thought was an ideal growing season for Pinot Noir, if there is such a thing. Since 2005, mother nature has thrown the kitchen sink at us, years of drought, fires, rain at the wrong time when it finally came, heat spikes days before harvest, red blotch, years with minuscule yields, to name a few. So when 2013 came, and it seems that week after week the weather was finally on our side, we did not want to jinx it, especially Don, and we kept thinking that we are going to pay at some point and that some cataclysmic evil forces were going to awaken and deliver another blow…it did not, Darth Vader did not show up.

2013 L’ESPÉRANCE Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

Tasting Notes 

Le Regard / The LookIn the glass, L’Espérance 2013 has a brilliant scarlet robe of raspberries and groseilles (red currants) with deep Ruby gemlike clarity and luminosity.

Le Nez / The Nose
The nose is intensely perfumes and seductive: Aroma worthy of Le Musigny. Exotic notes of pure red tart wild cherries, raspberry and red plums, layered with violets and acacia blossoms. As the wine opens, the aromas become intoxicating in purity and depth – dusty rose petals, earthy forest floor, spiked with lightly toasted sour dough bread, cardamom, anise, and sandalwood. Elegant and Ethereal, with great intensity and verve.

Degustation / The Taste
The palate is precise (Droit!! as we say in Bourgogne), attacking with bright and harmonious layers of spiced caramelized tart wild red cherries, and red plums. This is a wine of great class, very expressive, as the layers are all tightly woven into a density that is a mouth full, chewy at first, then creamy and rich. The wine is an unparalleled elegance of red fruit, velvety raspberry and groseilles compote then carries on with exotic layers of tart pomegranate and violets interlaced with fatty vanilla bean, jasmine, and cardamom. The finish is bright and full of verve, bringing all aromas and taste into high definition, complete, complex, and infinite. The satin texture creates an elegant length that one can only find in wines of much older vintages.