Our 10th vintage of Pinot Noir from this mountain top site.
The 2022 Cougar Rock Pinot Noir opens with lifted aromas of wild strawberry, pomegranate, and blood orange, layered with subtle notes of dried sage, tea leaf, and crushed stone. Always our most refined and silken expression, Cougar Rock Pinot is delicate in color yet remarkably complex, a reflection of the calcareous, chalk-strewn soils woven throughout the block. A thread of volcanic minerality and faint forest floor undertones grounds the wine, while rose petals and citrus zest provide aromatic lift. On the palate, it is vibrant and precise, carried by supple tannins and a graceful, lingering finish. This wine radiates youthful energy while promising elegant evolution with time in bottle.
All lots of Pinot Noir undergo an extended cold soak until native yeast begin a spontaneous fermentation in open-top fermenters, where the grapes are punched down by hand once to twice per day. For Cougar Rock Pinot Noir only the free run juice is used Our small lot fermentations, with 50% whole cluster, take upwards of a month before going to barrel for their extended aging. Our Pinot Noir remains in 100% new Damy 500L puncheons for 18 months and 12 months in bottle before release.
The Antinori California vineyard is known to brick & mortar as Cougar Rock Vineyard, the named for the first sight of the craggy rock feature at the highest point of the estate by Piero Antinori in 1966. Cougar Rock Vineyard was the sole source for our inaugural wines in 2011 and we produce them every year. Nestled from 1,450 to 1,800 feet above sea level, the vineyard lies due east of Yountville, high up in the Vaca Mountain Range of the eastern hills in Napa Valley. Within the range rests Foss Valley, the original throughway from the coast to the Sacramento Valley for the early settlers in California. In the heart of Foss Valley, the 1200-acre estate encompasses the furthest eastward portion of the Atlas Peak AVA in Napa Valley.
