2019 St. Dolores Estate WV Pinot

A disappearing act

A Story: Mom’s name is Dolores. As a mother of seven, and Canadian, she’s on the path, though still working out, sainthood.

The Cliff Notes: Dark garnet is the color it rolls. It presents a beautiful effusive nose of dark cherry, black pepper, succulent roast meat and juniper. Its exceedingly full mouth of Bing cherry, Ticonderoga #2 and wintergreen only hints at the massive amount of dry matter in this wine. It reverberates, forever, and after it has smothered you in its kiss, it vanishes, it takes its leave, it beguilingly ghosts you. It seems a classic French exit.

The Building of: These are the four best barrels, wild-yeast fermented in stainless steel and 100% barrel aged for 18 months (no new, one once-filled, three neutral barrels). Bottled unfiltered in April 2021.

Ageability: We absolutely recommend that you consider decanting to get it some air within its first three years. This wine should easily climb in complexity beyond ten years.

Vineyards: Our dry-farmed, organic, St. Dolores Estate (12 years) continues to bring that anomaly of both structured while at the same time juicy, from the vines to the wines. It’s a pretty place and we are thoughtfully farming the idea of substantial from it.

— Jim Prosser, owner/winemaker