The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. On Wildcat Mountain, the vines dig into the sparse volcanic soil and stand firm against the strong winds that race in off of the Pacific Ocean most afternoons. This fog-shrouded mountaintop vineyard is a classic Sonoma Coast site—cool and challenging—and produces wines of great distinction. Because the 2018 growing season was one of naturally high yields, we worked closely with our grower partners to thin the fruit in order to bring each vineyard into ideal balance. In general, 2018 was a late harvest, and the clusters ripened slowly. The grapes for our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir came from two prized blocks: Arrow Block and Saddle Block. Both are planted to Clone 667 but were planted in different years, 2000 and 1998, respectively. All of the grapes were hand-harvested in the cool early morning on September 24th, 2018.