Gantenbein Pinot Noir 2016
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Parker
Robert
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir is pure, fresh and aromatic on the well-concentrated nose, a great mix of fine red berries and crushed slate. Pure and intense on the palate, this is a concentrated, tight and linear Pinot with great tension on the finish. Very salty and fresh, taut and promising.
Daniel and Martha do all of the vineyard and cellar work themselves, by hand. Together, they farm six hectares (15 acres) of vineyards, about 500 meters above sea level on the scree slopes of the northern Alps. Most of the vineyards (about 12.5 acres) are planted densely with Pinot Noir clones from Burgundy. The rest is planted with Chardonnay, as well as a tiny parcel of Riesling, planted with vines sourced from the Mosel.
Gantenbein Pinot Noir is carefully harvested by hand and fermented in custom-built, open-top wood fermenters, typically with 20% whole clusters. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barriques. The wines are bottled after 12 to 14 months in barrique, without filtration or fining. Even in a good vintage, the yields are quite low — only about 1.5 tons per acre, for an average production of about 1,200 cases of Pinot Noir and about 200 cases of a fine, mineral-focused Chardonnay.