Wine Notes [PDF]

2002 Reserve Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
Alcohol: 14.5%, Total Acidity: .52, pH: 3.87, Residual Sugar: .07%. 388 cases produced.

Winemaker Notes | Grapes from cooler locations – Sonoma Coast, Carneros, and Santa Maria Valley – were harvested along with warmer locations – Sonoma Valley and Alexander Valley – to promote a deeper, more complex flavor profile. The majority of the lots were cold soaked for two to three days, fermented in open and closed fermentors and pumped over two times per day. The fermentations lasted 12 to 20 days at temperatures in the low 80’s to low 90’s. Wines were aged in American and French oak for 15 months.

Tasting Notes | The Sonoma Coast is one of the most exciting emerging districts for Pinot Noir in California. This Reserve is an excellent version of what it can produce, a rich, fleshy wine, with intense fruitiness, and fine length. It is also very complex, tasting of caramel, toasted oak, baked cherry, plum, vanilla, and tobacco. Very long aftertaste. Serve with filet mignon with wine, brown, or wild mushroom, broiled salmon with herbs and butter, or veal scallopine.

Benziger Farming Practices | Benziger Family Winery is leading a new definition of wine quality through its Farming for FlavorsTM, organic and Biodynamic® winegrowing practices. Their 85-acre, certified Biodynamic Sonoma Mountain estate has become a research and teaching center for the cultivation of grapes with more flavor, intensity and site-specific vineyard character. The family shares its farming knowledge and experience with their longtime grower partners throughout Sonoma County.

Grapes for all Benziger wines are grown by one of three farming methods: Farming for Flavors, organic or Biodynamic. By reducing chemicals that mask the unique personality of vineyard sites, restoring the land and encouraging biodiversity on the farm, Benziger growers distinguish their fruit from all others. This distinction is of great importance to the grapegrower who makes a truly unique product, but also to the consumer who can trust that the passion of family farming and the delicious diversity of Sonoma County can be tasted in every bottle of high quality, handcrafted Benziger wine.

Benziger History | More than 25 years ago, Mike and Mary Benziger discovered the overgrown ranch that would become Benziger Family Winery. They purchased the land with the help of Mike’s father, Bruno Benziger, a wine and spirits importer from New York. A year later, Mike’s parents and his six siblings moved to Glen Ellen to help build the winery. Today, more than two-dozen Benzigers live on and around the estate winery in Sonoma County.