1997 J RRV Vintage Brut, Late-Disgorged

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The Vineyards
The 1997 growing season in the Russian River Valley was marked by warm and even weather from bloom until harvest. Crop levels and cluster weights were higher, which led to acid levels that were lower than normal. Fruit flavors and aromas were well-developed, as is evident by the forward notes in the wine. What was an average year for other vineyards in our region, proved to be an exceptional year for ours.

Processing
This wine was crafted with an unrelenting passion for producing a wine of great elegance and individuality. All grapes were hand-harvested into small bins and hand loaded as whole clusters into our special Coquard champagne press for a gentle pressing cycle. Vineyard lots and press fractions were kept separate until blending decisions were made in mid-November. The blend was assembled in December of 1997, cold stabilized and then bottled over the spring of 1998.

Aging
The secondary fermentation in the bottle lasted 6-8 weeks. The wines then patiently aged for an extended period of eight years in our cool cellars. In 2006, we began riddling the wines to remove the yeast sediment responsible for the aging character. A dosage liqueur was prepared from a blend of cask-aged, reserve wines and pure cane sugar and added to the individual bottles at the time they were disgorged. After the wine was disgorged, it was aged for an additional year before we released it from our cellars to ensure a perfect balance of flavors.