2011 Blanc de Noir, Extended Tirage

My gaze locks upon vibrant and mature, a beautiful horizon

The Cliff Notes: These bubbles are the color of the horizon two minutes before sunset. The micro-bead is small and persistent. The nose is earth, lemon, shortcake and candied orange peel. On the palate there is terrific tension of weight versus acidity. Flavor bursts of key-lime, tangerine and Marie Lu biscuit drive deep and tailor the structure towards a mouth-watering finish that beckons, “Again!”

Elevage/Tirage: Over the course of 64 months before release we intensively and meticulously built these bubbles using the highest méthode champenoise traditions. We barrel fermented a base wine from our oldest and favorite block of Pinot noir, using lees addition to strip color and broaden an earthy mid-palate. In course, we racked it from barrel and put it in bottle with a crown cap (racking, tiraging, dosing and refermenting) to create super fine bubbles. The bottles were rested and rotated (riddled) on its fermentation sediment for an extended tirage of 48 months until we attained yeasty complexity. Our final step was blowing the crown cap and sediment plug, topping up and finishing with cork (disgorgement and dosage). Drink over the next six years.

Vineyards: The Pinot Noir grapes for this single-vintage, single-vineyard, single-block Blanc de Noir came from Temperance Hill’s, organic, high-elevation, 31-year old Front Block in the Eola Hills. In the cool growing year of 2011 this block delivered the kind of long natural flavor development and acid-driven chemistry that make world-class bubbles. We had dreamt of it for a decade, but dreaming is not doing. So we did.

Fermentation: The 100% Pinot noir base wine was whole-cluster pressed and neutral barrel fermented to absolute dry utilizing a long, slow, low-temperature, wild-yeast regimen to promote vineyard characters and preserve fleeting fruit esters.

— Jim Prosser, owner/winemaker