2007
Ambassador’s 1953 Vineyard Pinot Noir
Ambassador Zellerbach planted the first four acres of Pinot
Noir at Hanzell Vineyards in 1953. These vines would become the
mother block for the estate, providing budwood from which most of
the Pinot Noir vines on the property originated. It is a hallowed
vineyard, the oldest Pinot Noir vineyard in North America bottled
as a single vineyard source in deference to the great history of
its origins.
In the late 1890’s, Paul Mason imported Pinot Noir cuttings to
California from his native Burgundy. This budwood was
ultimately the forerunner of Martin Ray’s Mount Eden Vineyard. The
dissemination of the Mount Eden selection spread to such esteemed
vineyards as Chalone, Rochioli, and Joseph Swan. The Hanzell clone
arrived here from Mount Eden by way of the Oakville Viticulture
Field Station. Ivan Schoch acquired the budwood for Stelling
Vineyard, located just across the street from the Field Station.
Ivan Schoch was hired by Ambassador Zellerbach to plant Hanzell
Vineyards in 1953 and it was Schoch who introduced the Stelling
Vineyard cuttings to Hanzell Vineyards.
Vintage
and Winemaking:
Not every vintage earns the Ambassador’s 1953 Vineyard
mantle, but in 2007 the growing season blessed us with nearly
perfect growing conditions. Save for a short heat spike in
early July, the warm sunny days were perfectly tempered by cold
foggy nights. These are textbook conditions for intense
flavor development while maintaining structure and balance. A
mere 0.9 tons per acre were harvested from these historic vines. As
is the long held tradition here, the grapes were hand sorted and
de-stemmed into small open topped tanks. Extended post-fermentation
maceration lends structure, length and longevity. After pressing,
the wine was aged for eighteen months in 50% new Sirugue barrels
before bottling.
Given this remarkable vintage year, and the quality and
complexity of all the fruit on the Estate, it was not a difficult
choice to bestow this wine its own separate bottling that truly
reflects this distinguished vineyard. Of the seven barrels
produced, only four were chosen for this special bottling. There is
every reason to believe as well that this wine will continue its
unparalleled development in bottle and be truly extraordinary in
the many years and decades to come.
Tasting
Notes:
Showing a great deal of complexity at this wine’s early
stage of development, the initial aromas are of warm spiced
cherries, dried cranberry, tobacco leaf, orange peel and the
stoniness of potter’s clay. As the wine opens further, notes of
cola, toasted grain and a brambly/dry brush quality come forward.
In the mouth, the broad flavors of fresh cherry, pomegranate and
clean mineral fan across the palette where there is a lovely
tension between the rich fruit sweetness and the nice grip of
plentiful fine tannins. The depth and length of flavor are simply
tremendous leaving no doubt of this wine’s great heritage and
ageability.
Decant at least of two hours before serving.
1142 Bottles Produced
