Zena Crown The Sum Pinot Noir 2016

We create our wines with an end goal, a purpose, in mind. So we may use some percentage of whole clusters in fermentation depending on the vintage, the clone, and the intended wine. The wines are fermented in open tanks, with daily punchdowns. Aging and malolactic fermentation occur in French oak. In the style of Burgundy’s grands crus, most of the barrels are new—75-90% in any given year and wine. New barrels breathe, permitting more oxygen ingress than wine-soaked neutral wood, and we can limit excess reduction without racking the wines. After a year and a half in oak, the wines only move once: into the bottle. We do not practice fining as a rule, and we close our bottles with a Diam cork, eliminating any chance of TCA contamination. With each vintage, we hope to preserve a clear moment in time, even a feeling, for the wine can project color and light; it is our camera obscura, faithfully recreating our hands, our vineyard, these hills, this valley. Amassed from multiple vineyard blocks and clones, this wine is shaped like an hourglass – it is rich and opulent on the front, then tightens across the mid-palate before broadening out to a lush finish. Expressing Autumn, Σ (The Sum) leads with maple syrup, broken twigs, freshly tilled soil, and blackberry on the nose, with dark roasted coffee on the finish. 60% whole-cluster fermentation bolsters the wine, sustaining the tannic imprint with wavy texture on the finish