2011 Pinot Noir Comptche Ridge

David Low, Anthony Filiberti and Web Marquez told me that in spite of the diminished yields in 2011 it was a vintage that "gave the type of fruit that suits their style," meaning fully ripened at low Brix levels (20 to 23 degrees Brix across the board for them) and with high natural acidity.Botrytis issues are never of serious concern for most of the vineyards with which they work because of their cool, wind-swept locales and altitude, so they didn't go through the angst of many of their Russian River Valley colleagues in '11.That said, Anthony told me that another key to avoiding rot was widely spaced vines, which allowed even more air circulation, a factor especially in the DeMuth and Comptche Ridge vineyards, which are planted at 10' x 6' and 8' x 5' respectively.He called 2011 "just a weird year: always grey and never really getting above 70 degrees all summer so sugar uptake crawled along."The Campbell vineyard was picked on September 21, almost three weeks before the deluge, by the way, and the yield was just three-quarters of a ton per acre.