Harvest Date October 2

Growing Season 2006 was slightly cooler overall than 2005 and began with delayed bud break due to a long, wet spring. The weather warmed in May, continuing through summer and into fall to provide the extended growing season needed for fruit to ripen fully. Ritchie Vineyard was harvested on October 2, escaping mid-harvest rains that arrived the following week and posed the potential for botrytis in the vineyard.

Winemaking

• Hand-harvested grapes
• Whole cluster, direct to press, cold
• Barrel fermented with indigenous yeasts; 3 months to completion
• Concurrent spontaneous malolactic fermentation in barrels; 3 months to completion
• Aged 16 months in French oak barrels; 74% new (Francois Freres, Sirugue, Seguin Moreau and Damy).
• Aged sur lies and batonnage biweekly
• Unblended, unfined and unfiltered; bottled January 2008