Powerful tones of ripe red plum and shaved fennel root. This vintage is particularly savory, displaying earthy aromas of new leather, chicory, and vetivert. Complex and long, it will evolve in your glass over the course of an evening.

ESTATE VINEYARD 

Our Pinot Noir comes exclusively from the Center of Effort Estate in the western foothills of the Edna Valley, just 4.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The 2016 vintage was balanced, and of high quality across our estate. Some of the newly developed vineyard blocks began to come into production, broadening our palette of Pinot Noir selections for inclusion in this wine. Entirely hand-harvested during the cool overnight hours and processed immediately upon delivery to the  winery in the morning. 

WINEMAKING 

Each sub-block was separately hand-harvested, followed by small-lot fermentation with manual daily punch-downs for a balanced extraction of color and flavor. Approximately 15% of the fruit was whole-cluster fermented by native yeast. Aging took place over 11 months in French oak, approximately 30% new, the balance once-filled and neutral. The wine was bottled without fining or sterile filtration in order to retain the most authentic expression of our estate vineyard.

ABOUT EFFORT WINES 

Effort is the companion label to our flagship Center of Effort wines. Each lot of the vintage is crafted in accordance with our vigilant standards of quality, all competing for the crown. However, only a handful of elite lots are ultimately designated for Center of Effort. What remains is our best effort of the vintage. Stylistically, Effort wines exhibit a more approachable, fruit-forward style, bringing diversity and dimension to our portfolio.