Benziger Family Winery is pleased to announce that the 2007 Signaterra Pinot Noir, Bella Luna, was a GOLD MEDAL WINNER in the San Francisco Chronicle's 2010 Wine Competition.

Elegant. Confident. Graceful.
Our Bella Luna Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley is a signature wine. The individuality of the vineyard, the fingerprint of the vintage and the acumen of the winemaker are joined in each bottle. Expressing the marks of these three forces — earth, nature, and man — is fundamental to our mission, our philosophy and the wine we call Signaterra.

Earth | This vineyard produces superlative pinot noir grapes. Tucked against a grove of redwoods, it is one of the more ‘cool climate’ vineyards in all of Russian River. Only eight and a half miles from the coast, Bella Luna’s complex gold ridge soils and consistent slope produce grapes that ripen slowly and evenly. It is planted to pinot noir clones 115, 667 and 777. In 2007, the vineyard was farmed using high level sustainable farming practices and is now in-transition to official Demeter Biodynamic® certification.

Nature  |  Bella Luna has clear marine influences. Soft fogs from the Coast brush across Bella Luna on their way to rest in the Russian River Valley. This keeps temperatures mild, a good 7-8º F cooler in the summer than in inland locations and helped guard against the erratic temperature swings and hot spells that can affect more easterly Russian River locations. There is also little variance in temperature from day to night at Bella Luna. This allows acidity to develop gradually and consistently in the grapes throughout the night hours - making for complex and well developed grapes at harvest.

Man |  We handled this wine with great tenderness and care and a minimum of intervention. The grapes were hand harvested at night in cool temperatures to keep the sugars intact and the fruit fresh. Instead of crushing, the pinot noir was gently destemmed keeping the whole berries undamaged. The fruit and juice were gravity fed into open topped fermenters and cold soaked for five to six days to extract color and red cherry aromas. Native yeast fermentation gives this wine an extra layer of complexity, adding earthy aromas and gentle tannins. While it is nerve racking to depend entirely on native yeasts, the seamlessness of the wine is well worth the risk. Finally, the wine underwent concurrent spontaneous malolactic fermentation over a four month period.