2019 Walter Hansel ‘North Slope’ Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

VIN88 The 2019 Pinot Noir The North Slope Vineyard offers lovely mid-palate depth to play off strong floral, savory notes. I find the North Slope a bit uncharacteristic in its vegetal character, which I suspect is related to machine harvesting for some of this fruit.

The South Slope begins at the highest elevation and the furthest South of all of our Vineyards blocks. It slopes from South to North about 45 feet and it’s soils are predominantly sandy loam. The berry size is medium with a high berry count giving cluster weight that has yields approaching 2 1/4 tons/acre (our highest yields). It is 100% French clone 777, and tends to show it’s earthy side far more then our other clones. Although this wine definitely has a French origin, each year it becomes more and more new world.