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Vineyard Selection | Grape Selection | Vinification | Blending
To create luscious wines with complexity and depth of flavor we seek grapes from vineyards that are placed in very special areas. Locations that are warm enough to produce perfectly ripe fruit, but cool enough to allow for extended hang time that builds the complex flavors we are seeking. Also critical is the viticultural practices of the growers that emphasize balancing the vine with the right canopy management techniques. All of our Pinot Noir comes from vines trained on a VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis and are pruned to reduce shading of the fruit, but with enough leaves remaining to ripen the fruit and keep the vine healthy for decades to come. Crop thinning is practiced to produce even ripening and to intensify flavors. All of these efforts are time consuming and costly, but the quality of the wine is so much better for it. With Fulcrum you should expect nothing less.
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Selecting the finest vineyards is just the first step to creating an amazing wine. There are several other critical decisions that must be made.
Clones - Pinot Noir has been planted in the US for over 100 years, but quality has improved over the last 20-30 years as new clones of Pinot have been planted. These newer plantings are often described as Dijon clones which are only known by their numbers like 115, 667, and 777. There are also clones with different parentage like Swan, Pommard, and Martini that have longer histories in North America. We do not have a hard preference, but prefer to pick the clones that produce the most impressive fruit in a particular vineyard.
Harvest Parameters - In selecting the ultimate grapes for Fulcrum we are seeking grapes displaying phenolic maturity and physiological ripeness. The timing of the harvest is based upon taste primarily and by analytical rules of thumb secondarily. By tasting the fruit and cracking the seeds in our teeth we can get a sense of what the quality and flavors of the final wine will be. Visually we look for the loosening of the skin of the grape and browness of the seeds. We also watch key indicators like acidity (measured by total acidity and ph), and sugar content (measured by Brix) which are tested to make sure that the grapes are ready. Grapes with very low acids will need drastic acid additions to make the wines ageworthy, food friendly, and microbiologically stable. Grapes with too much sugar will require dilution with large quantities of water to lower the sugar and hence the potential alcohol level to allow the yeast to ferment the wine to dryness. However this could cause a dilution in flavors, which is unacceptable to Fulcrum.
Managing fruit quality in the vineyards rather than making significant manipulations in the winery is always the preferred approach. However, we are not luddites and we will step in to ensure that we produce the best quality wine even if that means we have to tinker a bit to get it right. Finally, we sort rigorously to eliminate MOG (material other than grapes), rot, green berries and even unripe clusters. Exacting attention to detail is the hallmark of our approach. That pursuit of perfection means that when you open a bottle of Fulcrum you are experiencing a unique expression of Pinot Noir that only the best grapes can offer.
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A perfectly balanced wine is so satisfying that once you taste it you will search for it over and over again. The theme of balance is at the forefront of how we approach winemaking at Fulcrum. Balancing time tested old world techniques and modern enology is how our winemaker crafts Fulcrum. An understanding of fermentation science and knowledge of the chemistry of wine plays a large role in our approach, but there are older techniques and methods that we follow that haven’t been scientifically proven yet, but we find them useful and their wonderful results compelling.
Based upon what the harvest offers we will adopt a strategy that leverages the strengths of that particular fruit. So the myriad of decisions that are made in the winery are based upon maximizing the potential of the grapes as opposed to putting all fruit through a standard process. It is a more intimate way of making wine that yields unique wines that are not only specific to a vineyard, but to a barrel.
Some of the techniques we employ include:- Cold Soaking
- Use of small open top fermentors
- The combination of native and cultured yeasts
- Manual punch downs
- High peak fermentation temperatures
- Gentle bladder pressing
- Allow Malolactic fermentation to occur in the barrel
- Use a variety of oak barrels (new and used), but always French Oak
- Minimize racking
- Intervene only when necessary
By blending various lots we can add complexity, depth and finesse. While our Pinot is not blended with wine made from other varietals, there is an opportunity to blend among clones, barrels and vineyards. In some cases an exceptional wine can be produced from a single vineyard, but more often than not a blend from several vineyards has the potential to be superior to any of its component wines. However when a single vineyard can deliver a complete and balanced wine, it will be bottled by us as a vineyard designate.
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