New Releases/Goldeneye/Duckhorn Wine Company

Goldeneye has releases many new wines recently,and today we will open three bottles and check out the tasting notes on these new releases. First a little about the winemaker. In the story of great winegrowing appellations, there are always a few wineries that help to raise the bar and chart the course for a region. As a Pinot Noir specialist, and the winemaker for Goldeneye, Michael Fay is building on the valley’s reputation as one of the world’s preeminent locations for growing Pinot Noir. At the same time, his belief in a vineyard-inspired, small-lot approach to winemaking is cementing Goldeneye’s status as one of North America’s great Pinot Noir wineries. Michael was born in Vicenza, Italy, near the winegrowing region of Friuli, and was raised in Southern California. While working in the restaurant industry and studying forestry management at the University of Washington in Seattle, Michael discovered a passion for West Coast Pinot Noir. “I was studying forestry management because I wanted to cultivate a relationship with nature, but my growing love of Pinot made me realize I didn’t want to make paper, I wanted to make wine.” In 2000, Michael transferred to Cal Poly to study enology and viticulture. He also took a job in the vineyards at Cambria Estate in Santa Maria. It didn’t last long. “My vineyard work was meticulous, but I was really slow!” Moving to winemaking, Michael joined the cellar team at Firestone. His talents quickly became apparent and he was soon promoted to cellar master. Eager to focus more on Pinot Noir, in 2002 Michael returned to Cambria as enologist, where he honed his skills under noted winemaker Denise Shurtleff. In 2007, Michael became assistant winemaker. In this position, he helped to grow the winery’s Pinot program, with a focus on small-lot, clone and site-specific bottlings. He also actively helped to guide the Pinot Noir estate program, with an emphasis on vineyard planting and clonal selection. In addition to his role at Cambria, in 2007 Michael also became the winemaker for Santa Maria’s Los Alisos Wines, where he oversaw all aspects of the winery’s estate program. Our first wine is the Gowan Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir from Goldeneye. Two miles north of the Confluence Vineyard in the heart of the Anderson Valley, our Gowan Creek Vineyard sees appreciably more coastal fog. The unique terroir of this site brings together elements from both the valley’s warmer regions and its cooler, northern “deep end.” Offering an ideal Southwestern exposure and an array of unique vineyard blocks, Gowan Creek is planted to eight different clones of Pinot Noir, each carefully tailored to a specific site and soil type. The powerful and expressive wine produced from these vines displays beautiful inky depth and robust, untamed fruit flavors. Our second wine today is the Goldeneye2013. Goldeneye began making premium quality, cool-climate Pinot Noir from our estate winery in the Anderson Valley in 1997. Blending grapes from four estate vineyards, we are dedicated to crafting wines of refinement and elegance from a rich palette of terroir-inspired fruit. Reflecting the Mendocino Coast’s unique marine influences, sites and soils, these grapes create sublime and sophisticated Pinot Noir. To further enhance natural depth and complexity, winemaker Michael Fay selects only a small percentage of the finest fruit for each vintage before applying small-lot, artisanal winemaking techniques. I'm amazed at how incredible these wines are.The third wine today is the flagship wine from Goldeneye called 10Degrees! The name Ten Degrees pays homage to the unique, cool climate of the Anderson Valley and the fact that even though our four estate vineyards span a modest eight miles, they often display a temperature variance of as much as 10 degrees from The Narrows Vineyard in the cool “deep end” to our Confluence Vineyard in the south. To add to this natural climactic diversity, our Estate program consists of 200 acres and more than 96 individual blocks of Pinot Noir with 49 unique combinations of clone and rootstock material. These wines are very small in numbers and a must for ALL Pinot Noir lovers.Every little detail is taken very seriously,and these wines are the state of the art of Californian Pinot Noirs!We have a few great audio features for you,and a glass of Goldeneye to enjoy as you listen!Cheers!