California Wines : Fine Wines > Top California Wines > 2003 Hirsch 2003 Hirsch
David Hirsch has long sold fruit from his eponymous, isolated Sonoma Coast vineyard to cult Pinot producers like Williams Selyem, Flowers and Littorai. With the 2002 vintage, he started making wine under his own name; his spicy, vivid '03, dense with wild cherry flavor, makes it clear that this was a wise decision. By focusing solely on Pinot Noir from the most prestigious vineyard sites in California and Oregon, and by vinifying each barrel separately by lot, clone, yeast and cooper, we champion individuality of place and intensity of flavor in each wine we produce
Hirsch Vineyards of the Sonoma Coast of California is located on a unique site on the second ridge from the Pacific ocean. Everything that's being done in this unique wine growing area is original as there was no generational transfer of practical experience. Just a few generations ago, this area was primal redwood rain forest and when they cut down all the trees the environment was really changed. It turned this area into a summer desert, with greater extremes of heat and cold. Because of the collision of tectonic plates and earthquake faulting (the San Andreas fault runs between Hirsch Vineyards and Fort Ross), the area is a composite of all kinds of soils, rocks, rolling hills, sandstone, shales - just a hodge-podge of growing sites with sharp changes of weather from site to site and very dramatic climate working on a very heterogenous site."
David Hirsch arrived in the late 1970s and planted his first grapes in 1980. Hirsch Vineyards now has 47 plus producing acres - mostly pinot noir. Hirsch Vineyards has just released its first home-bottled wine, a 2002 Pinot Noir made 100 percent from estate-grown fruit.
|
|
Best California Wines California Wines List Corison Cabernet Sauvignon Beringer Private Reserve Dalla Valle Quintessa Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Switchback Ridge Marston Family Vineyard Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon Hourglass Bond St. Eden Lynmar Quail Hill Vineyard Calera Jensen Vineyard Mt. Harlan Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Etude Heirloom Sea Smoke Botella Stephen Ross Bien Nacido Vineyard Londer Keefer Ranch Hirsch Arcadian Pisoni Vineyard Seghesio Family Vineyards Sonoma Chateau Montelena Rosenblum Cellars Annettes Reserve Ridge Lytton Springs The Terraces Napa Valley Mount Eden Estate Bottled Chalk Hill Estate Bottled Ramey Russian River Valley Hanzell Vineyards Sonoma Valley Kongsgaard Napa Valley Voss Vineyards Hanna Estate Russian River Valley Flora Springs "Soliloquy" St. Supéry Napa Valley Beckmen Purisima Mountain Vineyard California Wine Articles