First Impressions On Our St. Laurent - Pinot Noir Blend

It's fair to say that 2020 was less-than ideal for most; a year pockmarked with challenges and adaptation. In wine country we not only had to contend with COVID, but another round of wildfires ripped through the region and provided plenty of strife as well. We at Ricci Vineyards were not directly harmed by the flames, but the accompanying smoke that drifted into the valley reeked havoc enough on its own. Prior to being picked, when grapes are overly exposed to smoke, the resulting effect can lead to a wine that exhibits "smoke taint"...a characteristic that imparts an unpleasant, ashy taste to the finished product.

Since the wildfires were so widespread, many farmers growing grapes throughout California had to contend with smoke taint. In particular this blight was most noticeable with Pinot Noir, as it is a thinner-skinned varietal more susceptible to this unwanted attribute. Our vineyard was no exception. Most of our Pinot Noir fruit fell victim to smoke damage and was simply not harvested; left to dangle and rot on the vine.

While some might have interpreted this as a tragedy, we saw it as a unique opportunity to try something new. Since our Pinot Noir yield ended up being so small, we salvaged what we could and decided to do something different: blend it with another varietal to make a completely new wine. This other varietal ended up being our St. Laurent, which has a greater tolerance against the effects of smoke damage. At the time we didn't know if this little experiment would work, but we had nothing to lose and we pushed forward; optimistic and hoping for the best.

Above: The first taste of our new St. Laurent - Pinot Noir blend.

​Now here were are approximately five months later and our little blend is ready to be tasted for the first time. The verdict? It is really, and maybe somewhat surprisingly, UTTERLY F*#@KIN' DELICIOUS. Blended with a 45%-55% ratio of Pinot Noir to St. Laurent, and aged in 50% new Hungarian oak, we're beyond excited to see what the future holds and how this finished wine is going to turn out. Surely this is a testament to the old adage: when life give you lemons, make lemonade...or in this case, wine. We still have to wait until June to put this in bottle, and then wait a few more months until it's unveiled, but it seems that our patience and perseverance is going to be well worth it.

Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the actual release date. In the meantime, be sure to check out all of our other wines that are also tasting great. Cheers!