2005 Pinot Noir Goldridge

"We were relieved by finally getting good pinot yields in 2006," Tom Dehlinger told me, "because 2005 was a painfully small crop." Two thousand six featured a later growing season, he went on, with a later bloom, and the malos went very slowly, "which will mean good complexity."The pHs for his pinots averaged about 3.5 in 2006 while in 2005 they were more like 3.65. Dehlinger told me that right now he is more concerned with choosing the proper rootstock ("AXR is just too vigorous"), trellising and vine spacing than he is with clonal selections, although he is now convinced that he wants to work only with the Wente clone for his chardonnay. Dehlinger told me his vineyard is completely dry-farmed, which is becoming increasingly rare in northern California.