2009 Capiaux, Pinot Noir “Pisoni Vineyard” Santa Lucia Highlands.
The dark crimson/ruby hued 2009 Pisoni Vineyard by Sean Capiaux is aging beautifully and is still remarkably youthful and shows off a bit of reduction, but opens up nicely to reveal a classic medium/full palate of black cherry, plum, blackberry and strawberry fruits, along with bramble and briar, a touch of graphite, orange tea, vanilla, a touch of truffle earliness and wilted rose petals. This wine is mature and silky, but impressively has a lively nature and fine acidity, making it finely balanced and great with food. These days Capiaux uses between 10 and 20% whole cluster, a 4-day cold soak and a natural fermentation in open top tanks. The maceration is uniquely done with what Capiaux says is Pulsair (cap management using compressed air) and traditional punch downs. The wine is then pressed to barriques for its secondary malolactic fermentation with the wine aging sur lie 11 months until he does the bottling. Interestingly these wines, even with Capiaux’s critically acclaimed efforts and Gary Pisoni’s fame, are still under the radar, so the price is reasonable and I highly recommend checking out the current releases.
I have been a fan of Sean Capiaux a long time now, who does a great lineup of Pinots under his own label, as seen here, and is the winemaker at O’Shaughnessy, on Howell Mountain in the Napa Valley. Sean Capiaux founded his Capiaux Cellars in 1994, with a focus of producing single vineyard bottlings of Pinot Noir from an array of top sites throughout California, including the famous Garys’ and Pisoni vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands. The legendary Pisoni Vineyard, originally planted in 1982 is primarily made up of decomposed granite with large deposits of quartz, with Gary Pisoni claiming to have brought cuttings back from La Tâche himself. Inspired by traditional Burgundy wines, Sean says his winemaking style is a blend of classic and contemporary, utilizing cutting edge fermentation equipment paired with natural hands on winemaking, with an emphasis is on balance. All the wines are naturally fermented, with indigenous yeast with long maceration(s) and elevage before being bottled unfined and unfiltered to preserve innate flavors and aromas. Capiaux adds that he uses minimal new oak and wines like his Pisoni usually sees about 33% new French oak. I see that Capiaux has added a new vineyard in the Russian River to his personal label lineup and I look forward to sampling that one at some point soon.
($65 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive