CLINE CELLARS
1999 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre
Contra Costa County
Technical Notes
Harvest Date: September 5th - September 21th
Brix at Harvest: 25.4°
Total Acidity: 0.73g/100ml
Final pH: 3.58
Residual Sugar: 0.025g/L
Alcohol: 14.0%
Cases Produced: 5899
Suggested Retail: $20

VINTAGE NOTES
The harvest of 1999 proved to be a year to remember, where weather was nothing short of challenging, from bud break in the spring through a late harvest in the fall. This harvest will go down in California's winemaking history as one of the latest and longest, with spring rains and cool weather pushing harvest back four to six weeks. Fortunately, Mother Nature began to cooperate in September with a warming trend, thus ripening our grapes to maturity. Unfortunately the crop was miniscule in size but, fruit flavors are very intense and colors are unbelievably black. Specifically, Mourvèdre grapes harvested from Contra Costa County vineyards exhibited exceptional body, deliciously ripe fruit and a complex tannin structure.
VINEYARDS
The 1999 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre draws from a wide selection of our oldest, most historic and shyest-bearing Mourvèdre blocks, all of which are over 100 years in age. These special vineyards consistently produce fruit of stunning concentration. The lots that we hand-selected for the 1999 blend showed an added degree of ripeness and dimension that is the result of sensitive farming practices, the singular Oakley terrior, and a unique cooling band of air that flows in from the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. By naturally restricting yields to 2 to 3 tons per acre (a record year for these vineyards), our old vines achieve sublime expression of the dark, dusty berry fruit quality that is so characteristic of our Ancient Vines Contra Costa County Mourvèdre.
FERMENTATION AND AGING
Individual lots of fruit for the 1999 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre were harvested separately according to ripeness and balance of acidity. The grapes underwent near total destemming and a very gentle crushing to ensure a large proportion of whole berries in the must--contributing to the explosive fruit character of the wine. Fermentation was carried out in stainless steel with select cultured yeasts after a 48-hour cold soak to extract color and flavor early on. The wines were pressed off their skins at dryness and racked twice before being laid down to a complement of small American and French cooperage--approximately 30% new American and barrel aged for 16 months. Prior to bottling, separate lots of Mourvèdre were blended together to achieve a balanced and harmonious wine, exhibiting firm structure, ripe tannins and plush fruit.
WINEMAKER'S COMMENTS
Mourvèdre, once widely planted in California at the turn of the century, has dwindled in acreage to about 300 acres. Cline Cellars controls a full 90%, making us the sole bearers of an important and historic Californian viticulture tradition. An interesting grape to work with in the cellar. Mourvèdre is particularly resistant to oxidization and is capable of producing wines with firm structure and rich, dark fruit that will age for over a decade. The 1999 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre, is a beautiful example of how well our 100 plus year old Mourvèdre vines respond to modern winemaking techniques. Redolent of dark plum, chocolate, eucalyptus, exotic spice and earth character, the 1999 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre is delicious presently and will age for well over a decade.
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Cline Cellars 24737 Hwy 121, Sonoma, CA 95476 707/935-4310
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