2016 Campbell Ranch Pinot Noir

Aromas of cranberry, vanilla, raspberry and dried herbs. Flavors of cola, anise, rhubarb, and tart raspberry. A soft front followed by bright acidity and full tannins. This Pinot will continue to mature in the cellar.

Our 2016 Campbell Pinot is a single clone, 777. Harvested September 15th between 4 and 6 am, the fruit arrived at the winery still as cold as the morning low of 55 degrees.

It was fermented in t-bins, twenty percent whole cluster, and aged for eleven months, with thirty five percent new oak. Only two hundred cases produced. 14.1% Alcohol

Campbell Ranch: This is a former timber ranch on the northeast side of Annapolis. Mostly forested eight hundred acres of rolling hills that are right above the fog line at 1,000 foot elevation. This makes it a perfect site for Pinot Noir with plenty of ripening hours and cooler daytime temperatures. The soils on the ridge are calcerous coastal sandstone – which was once ocean floor.

There are 30 acres of grapes on the ranch that was a homestead and lumber mill founded by Steve Campbell’s parents. Steve lives on the ranch and farms it with Ulises Valdez.

There are some big vineyards cut into the area around Annapolis, but this is a great example of a property that is mostly wild and growing back in a region that was once dominated by the timber industry.