Michael Cervin chronicled a recent Gary Farrell Winery tasting experience via Zoom on his blog, IntoWine. The piece provides insight into the 36 (yes 36!) different vineyard sites winemaker Theresa Heredia works with to “capture the essence of place” for the winery’s diverse range of Pinot Noirs.
As always, Heredia offers candid and informative context while leading tastings. “The entire point of this exercise was, frankly, to explore clonal differences and site differences. Some sites Theresa works with produce wildly different sizes of berries – “hens and chicks,” she calls them – small berries are very concentrated, big berries less so.”
Heredia believes the site of fruit is more important than the clone as it has more influence on the finished wine – and the same clone will taste different depending on the site in which it is grown. Cervin adds, “Both a place and clone have a greater disposition on Pinot Noir than other grapes, Cabernet for example, and the beauty of this tasting exercise was to examine how both worked in the glass. The point? Go explore, learn about not just AVAs, but sub-AVAs and even different blocks within the same vineyard. Ask questions. The variety of these Gary Farrell Wines (there are more Pinot’s than shown here) is a great place to start.”
Read the full write up and Cervin’s tasting notes HERE
GFW_IntoWine_8.20.2020Related Producers
Gary Farrell Winery
Russian River Valley, California
For over 40 years, Gary Farrell Winery has crafted small-lot artisan wines capturing balance and stylistic elegance from some of the finest vineyard sites in the Russian River Valley. Since 2014, the current owners have been dedicated to enhancing Gary Farrell’s legacy with a single-minded focus on quality, relying on rigorous vineyard selection, outstanding grower relationships and superior quality fruit.
