Chamisal Vineyards Releases 2012 Stainless Pinot Noir

12 Mar 2013 --- Chamisal Vineyards, the historic property which is celebrating its 40th anniversary and is home to the first vineyard planted in Edna Valley, is pleased to announce the 2012 release of its Stainless Pinot Noir. After two sell-out vintages through the tasting room, this wine will be released in select markets this March. The 2012 Chamisal Stainless Pinot Noir is a unique bottling, created to express the distinctive varietal characteristics of Pinot Noir.

The Stainless Pinot Noir was conceived as a companion wine to Chamisal's popular Stainless Chardonnay.  Produced without the use of any oak or malolactic fermentation, winemaker Fintan du Fresne allows the pure flavors and aromas of the fruit to stand alone with these wines. A viticulturist first, du Fresne hails from Wellington, New Zealand and has applied his expertise with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to both the Stainless Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Crafted with little manipulation and absolutely no oak influence, the resulting wine displays luscious fruit intensity and balanced acidity while allowing the true varietal characters to shine.

"The Stainless Pinot Noir is stylistically reminiscent of a high-quality Cru Beaujolais," said du Fresne, whose New Zealand roots and purist winemaking philosophy helped to inspire this wine. "By fermenting this Pinot in stainless steel tanks, we ensure that the wine retains authentic varietal aromas and flavors, and the result is a wine that bursts with aromas of bright cherry, candy apple and rose petal.  Vibrant, youthful and expressive, it is designed to be enjoyed now while it is young and exuberant."

Chamisal's 2012 Stainless Pinot Noir was sourced from meticulously-farmed vineyards throughout the Central Coast, with a majority of the blend coming from the home Chamisal Vineyard. This wine mixes the high tone red fruit flavors from vineyards in northern San Luis Obispo County with the denser, more structured characteristics of the Edna Valley to yield an expressive, flavorful and food-friendly wine. This wine also represents the diverse clonal selections for which Chamisal is known. A combination of Clone 828 – offering red and black berry fruit aromas with good intensity and supple tannin structure – and Clone 2A – with plentiful red fruit aromatics and a fruit forward flavor profile – these clones are ideally suited for this style of wine. The 2012 Chamisal Stainless Pinot Noir retails for $24 per bottle. Only 1,200 cases were produced.