Small Berry Vineyard Mourvedre wine label 

CLINE CELLARS
1999 Small Berry Vineyard
Contra Costa County
Technical Notes
Harvest Date: September 12th - September 11th
Brix at Harvest: 25.1°
Total Acidity: 0.71g/100ml
Final pH: 3.53
Residual Sugar: 0.030 g/L
Alcohol: 14.0%
Cases Produced: 1291
Suggested Retail: $32

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 Small Berry Vineyard is a small 9-acre block that has consistently produced one of our most complex and concentrated Mourvèdre's. Always a major component of our previous Reserve Mourvèdre bottlings, this vineyard designated wine exemplifies the unique characters of the variety while showcasing the elegant flavors that are contributed by the phylloxera resistant sandy soils described as our singular Oakley terrior. The vines in this block are 100 plus years old and were originally planted on their own roots, which make this one of California's most historic vineyards. Cline Cellars has chosen to dry-farm these ancient, head-pruned vines in the Small Berry Vineyard, continuing a practice employed by the Italian and Portuguese immigrants that planted this vineyard well before the turn of the century.
FERMENTATION AND AGING
In 1999, grapes from the Small Berry Vineyard were harvested at high natural sugar levels and treated gently in the cellar to emphasize the explosive fruit characteristic of the block. The fruit was almost entirely destemmed and lightly crushed, with a large proportion of whole berries remaining in the must. Fermentation occurred at moderate temperatures in stainless steel tanks, using a selection of cultured yeasts. After 10 days of gentle "pump-overs" and near dryness, we drained and pressed the wine from its skins. The Small Berry Mourvèdre was minimally handled before being put down to barrel, further accentuating the power and freshness of its dark fruit. The wine was aged for 16 months in a combination of new and used oak before bottling--approximately 25% new American.
WINEMAKER'S COMMENTS
Mourvèdre has always shown an added dimension of ripeness and individuality, so much so that we decided to bottle it as our vineyard designated wine starting with the 1996 vintage. This vineyard has always shown intense concentration of flavors due, in part to the minuscule yields that we receive (½ to 1½ tons per acre). Tobacco, provencal herbs, and a dusty-berry character dominate the wine when first opened. With airing, a complex of mint-chocolate and violets blossom from the glass. With plenty of flesh and a firm balanced structure of acid and fine-grained tannins, our Cline Cellars 1999 Small Berry Vineyard Mourvèdre is delicious now and will age beautifully for well over a decade.Back to Cline Cellars' Wine List

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