2018 Single Barrel MonoClone Pinot Noir Set
Triptych of 2018 Single Barrel MonoClone® Pinot Noirs
Single Vineyard, Single Clone, ONE Barrel...Soliste
L'Eternel – Rarissime – Extravagant
An Exclusive Release from the Phenomenal 2018 vintage
The Phenomenal 2018 Vintage - The Reward from a Near-Perfect Growing Season - Long Awaited!
It is amazing how a great vintage can temporarily erase from the mind the havoc that climate change has thrown at us. Especially for those like Soliste who are committed to craft elegant and complex Pinot Noirs, the most fragile of all grapes. Our patience has finally been rewarded with a near-perfect growing season in 2018. Sorely-needed winter rains helped to replenish the lakes and groundwater (though our generational drought is far from over). A cooler spring favored timing for a later, more consistent fruit set, less susceptible to frost challenges. Summer temperatures were cooler and moderate, and favored larger yields. We aggressively dropped fruit to enable concentration, demonstrating our commitment to quality over quantity. After being on edge from the 2017 heat spikes the temperate conditions were a welcome relief. As a result, harvest was three+ weeks later than in 2017 allowing for more uniform flavor development and stem lignification essential for whole cluster vinification. We carefully monitored flavor development and acids, and as is our practice, used multiple picks to select specific blocks as they matured. It was as close to a perfect growing season as we have seen in our history as vignerons.
Single Barrel Wines - Our Best of the Best
Claude and I sat together the other day to taste three of our 2018 Single Barrel MonoClone Pinot Noirs and select one to release. As our story goes, the name Soliste comes from the special single barrel the Burgundian vigneron reserves for friends and family. Our single barrel wines represent the promise and journey that is Soliste. We wanted to select an outstanding single barrel wine from an exceptional vintage to share with you.
Each of these three wines epitomized why we love Pinot Noir. Of all the cépages, it is the most complex, exotic, cerebral, and enigmatic. And at times, perhaps showing its French roots, can be very frustrating and challenging. This is why we are both infatuated with and passionate about Pinot Noir, and why we care so deeply about our mission to craft the very best wines year after year. Selecting just one took much debate – and more than a glass or two. Suddenly, Claude announced, “These are so incroyable, instead of waiting and releasing them one at a time, let's showcase them together, and at once!” Sometimes the best decision is no decision at all.
I’ll turn it over to Claude for his tasting notes:
This stellar vintage captures all the Alchemy that becomes Great Pinot Noir. This is a vintage for the purist. 2018 has gifted us precision, depth, pure aromatics and length to craft and select ONE barrel of three distinctive and singular Pinots from specific sites, terroir, and MonoClone. Each is aged for 16 months in a single barrel. The rewards are Pinot Noir’s intoxicating nose, powerful yet refined with layers of pure fruit density, spice, sous-bois, truffles, amazing length, and complex finish.
These three One Barrel MonoClone wines are so uniquely different that we simply could not resist but to do ONE release for you to experience their individual character – Vive la différence!
Here are the tasting notes for each of the three wines:
Each vertical includes 1 of each bottle - 3 total - Shipping Included
Click here to continue reading to learn more about:
- In 1098 the Cistercian Monks laid the foundation for naming the Burgundy crus
- The Duke of Burgundy and his decree safeguarding the quality of Burgundy wines
- Phylloxera destroys European vineyards in 1860
- In 1949 Raymond Bernard saved Pinot Noir and created Dijon Clones
- Really, over 1,000 clones of Pinot Noir?
