Occidental - Freestone Occidental - Pinot Noir 2020
Occidental is located in the town of Bodega, Sonoma, California . It is owned by Steve Kistler , of the famous Kistler Vineyards. Steve Kistler began to develop a passion for wines from coastal vineyards during his career at Ridge. In 1995, with Warren Dutton, he planted 1.5 hectares of Pinot Noir on Taylor Lane and named it Occidental Vineyard. In 1999, he bought the 40-hectare Bodega Headlands property where he planted 8 hectares of Pinot Noir in 2001. Following several purchases and new plantings of Pinot Noir, he founded Occidental in 2011, the new Kistler family estate dedicated to the production of Pinot Noir from the Freestone-Occidental region. The team is still made up of the same people who have worked with Steve for over thirty years.
Occidental wines are produced from vineyards located on a southwest-facing ridge overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just outside the town of Bodega. This ridge and the surrounding headlands mark the western boundary of the Freestone-Western region and are among the coldest and late-maturing sites. All the fruit is harvested at night and arrives fresh at the cellar the next morning. The fruits are carefully sorted into clusters before destemming and then into individual berries a second time with the aim of leaving as many whole berries as possible uncrushed in each fermenter. Each parcel of vineyard is fermented separately to capture as much of the site's individual character as possible. The fruit is intentionally not cold macerated before fermentation. The ambient temperature in the fermentation tanks allows the fruit to warm up gradually; this activates the indigenous yeasts, fermentation begins in 7 to 9 days and is completed in less than three weeks. Pigeages are only used when needed to distribute the heat of fermentation, ensuring gentle extraction. Once the fermentation is complete, the vats are racked and only the free run wine is transferred by gravity into François Frères barrels (25% new) to age in a naturally cold underground cellar. Native malolactic fermentations generally begin around the end of December and end in late spring the following year. The wine remains without racking until November, when it is transferred directly to the bottling tank and bottled unfined and unfiltered with a minimum level of SO2.
Grape variety: 100% Pinot Noir