2013 Pinot Noir Satisfaction Kessler-Haak Vineyard

I was quite taken with the new Pinot Noirs I tasted from La Voix (the voice), Steve Clifton's new Pinot label. Around the time Greg Brewer started his Diatom project, Clifton decided to start experimenting with small lots of Pinot Noir. According to Clifton "Brewer-Clifton is all about self-imposed constraints. The wines are made identically in order to showcase the unique personality of each site. With La Voix I want see what happens if there are no constraints at all." The wines I tasted suggested that the results are pretty exciting. The Pinots are made with mostly destemmed fruit, native fermentations and see very little new oak. The portfolio of sites has bounced around a bit, but I expect that will settle down as Clifton focuses more on this project. Vintage 2015 should see new wines from Kessler-Haak and Cargasacchi to round out the range. For years, Steve Clifton was insistent on the importance of working with estate vineyards at Brewer-Clifton. Now, at La Voix, he is back to sourcing fruit from vineyards farmed by other producers. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how things develop in the coming years.