The Winemaker
2016 was the first vintage made by our new winemaker, Anthony Filiberti. Trained as both a viticulturist and winemaker, he brings a wealth of farming and winemaking knowledge to Hirsch. Anthony’s past experience includes time at Rex Hill and Bergstrom Winery in Oregon, a stint at Williams Selyem, and seven years as winemaker at Knez Winery in Anderson Valley. He is also a partner and winemaker at Anthill Farms.
The Winemaking
The 2016 harvest began on August 22nd. Sorting was extremely conscientious to ensure that only the cleanest, most even fruit was included, and dry ice was employed to keep the fruit and juice fresh. All wines were fermented in open top stainless steel fermenters.
Extraction was limited to one punch down per day, with two pump overs added at the height of the fermentation, to ensure the cap was kept cool and wet. Fermentation temperatures were moderated through the use of cooling jackets on the tanks, ensuring a gentle extraction and preserving the complex, delicate aromatics. This resulted in a fermentation time of around 3 weeks, including a 4-day cold soak.
Significant amounts of whole cluster were employed in 2016, from 0% to 80%, depending on the vineyard block. On average, whole cluster inclusion was 45%. Great care was used when punching down, to avoid beating up the whole clusters during fermentation, which can lead to undesirable green notes and an overly dominant whole cluster character.
Our new destemmer proved its worth during the 2016 harvest. Destemmed fruit was almost perfectly intact, and very little green matter passed through the destemmer. Whole berries result in fresher wines, and they also slow down the fermentation, by making the sugars a bit harder for the yeasts to access. This contributed to the more pronounced fruit character in the 2016 wines.
The wines were pressed in our basket press, with all pressings done by Anthony himself. A relatively hard but short press cycle was used. Due to the high amount of whole cluster, a very small amount of unfermented sugar remained at the time of pressing, meaning that the last few grams of sugar underwent alcoholic fermentation in barrel. This produced CO2 in the barrel, which is a desirable preservative, allowing us to work with lower sulfur levels. The press wine was blended with the free run before being put to barrel.
The wines were barreled down in predominantly French oak barrels, of which approximately 20% were new. For the first time we also used a small number of barrels from the Austrian cooper Stockinger, with very good results. The wines were racked only once, before bottling.
The Wines
The 2016 Hirsch Pinot Noirs are moderate in alcohol, high in acidity, and graced with the long, supple tannins that are a hallmark of our wines. The lengthy growing season, cool, sunny weather, and thoughtful winemaking decisions resulted in a notable fruit character. They are concentrated but elegant: the fruit is vertical, rather than horizontal.
In these wines you will find the fruit intensity of the 2015s with the lift and energy of the 2014s. They are fresh and high-toned, with a core of fruit that is focused and balanced.