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2020 Mountain Pinot Noir

Dijon Clones “667 & 777” are planted in two different blocks in silty, rocky soil on the Naramata Bench, sitting at about 600 metres above sea level. The vineyard was planted in 2011 and is going into its 14^th leaf this year.

The Fox Vineyard is also treated mostly organically, so we don’t believe in using pesticides, herbicides or toxic sprays in the vineyard. We strongly believe in a happy ecosystem that helps promote the natural herbicides in the soil. The 667 & the 777 blocks roughly make up about one hectare of land which is situated on the highest and steepest areas of the Fox Vineyard. The Vineyard is planted southwest-facing for optimal sunlight and during the day it receives early and late afternoon sun. These two blocks tend to ripen earlier and the 667 crops a bit higher and needs to be thinned because of its high vigor and larger clusters.

Harvest is usually in early October, and the fruit is picked when it has reached its optimal ripeness. The fruit is picked and sorted on the vine into baskets and then processed in the morning due to the cooler temperatures that favour the fruit. With the Mountain Pinot Noir, the fruit is destemmed mostly whole berry with no crusher so we don’t over macerate the fruit. Depending on the vintage we sometimes will ferment whole cluster as well. The fermentation is around 14-18 days on its skins but that all depends on the vintage. We use indigenous yeasts as well as a few cultured yeasts for most of our ferments. When the fermentation is complete we then rack off the free run and gently press the wine off of its skins with the use of a basket press.

The wine was aged for 11 months in 40% new French oak and 60% neutral French oak. I find the Mountain Pinot Noir has nice flavors of Cherry, Liquorice, Red Currants, Graphite and a touch of Baking Spice.

 ALC: 13.5   PH: 3.65   TA: 6.6