2008 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard

According to Ken Wright, "2008 was a very cool year where I was worried about ripeness until September-and actually through almost the entire month of September. But then the tail end of the month and October turned out incredibly well. It didn't rain until October 28th, which is unprecedented here. The Indian summer wasn't especially hot, either, so the grapes picked up their sugars smoothly." He said that in addition to the optimum ripeness of the grapes, 2008 has the highest acidity levels since 1999, "and I didn't have to do any adjustments to the wines in the cellar at all." He told me that he wouldn't be surprised if the '08s shut down after a year or so in bottle because of the strong acidity. "But the fruit is definitely there to see them through an early dumb stage." Standard procedure here is for the pinots to get 50% new oak. Wright said he knows that most of his wines are drunk on the early side but wishes that they'd be given "at least three years of age after release so that they can move past the fruity stage."