Sonoma Trip - Hirsch Vineyards Wine Blending Trip

Part deux of day two started with a to-go sandwich in the small town of Occidental. We then traveled to the coast to dine where the Russian River meets the Pacific Ocean which was breathtaking. My picture cannot capture the beauty but attention still must be paid. 

After lunch we traveled through the twists and turns of the Sonoma Coast roads and above the cloud line to Hirsch Vineyards. The saying "as the crow flies" has never meant more to me; a five minute flight easily equals an hour drive. On a side note, as the crow flies, was the most commonly spoken phrase on our trip. It is a common descriptor of distance in California and appropriately so because you can see for miles but nothing is that easy for those of us traveling by foot or car. 

 At Hirsch we were greeted by David Hirsch who founded and planted the vineyard in 1980 to premium pinot noir. His background was in clothing sales but you would never know that today because there is no doubt that he is a farmer. David attributes the multiple terroirs of his vineyards to the grinding and gradual movement of the North American and Pacific Plates and the San Andreas Fault which lies beneath the vineyards. Each vineyard block has a different soil content which adds a very distinctive quality to the wines. The soils are a mixture of sandstone, heavy clay, sandy loam and clay loam that are scattered with a panoply of rocks varying in origin from igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary shale. The Hirsch website is a great source of information about their terroir and the Sonoma Coast.

We proceeded to the barrel room and tasted from fourteen different barrels of pinot noir. The 2008 vintage was smoky due to the fires in California. The barrels flavors ranged from smoked bacon to the beautiful clean fruit of a Chambolle Musigny. After tasting I selected four different blends based on the barrels we tasted. I wanted to create a wine that was predominately bright gorgeous fruit but still had a little of that vintage specific smoke. I have a feeling that regardless of my choice the wine still would have been kickin' good due to the quality of their juice. After tasting through all of the blends the one that appealed to me most was a blend of two barrels. There was a sweetness to the fruit, a silky-sexy texture and a little earthy smoke on the finish. After blending and bottling there will be fifty cases of Palmetto Bluff's first pinot noir called "Legacy".

A special thanks to David, Jasmine and Tess at Hirsch.