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2008

In 2008 we didn't irrigate for the last 50 days of the season - a considerable time not to irrigate in such poor soils - and saw a real concentration in color. By this time we were doing 100% whole-cluster fermentation. That's a pretty distinct departure from the 05, 06 and 07 vintages. I guess it's more like the 04 - more rich and concentrated. This is the best example of whole-cluster fermentation in a California Pinot that I've yet seen. It extends the palate without being stemmy. The mouthfeel is wonderful - this is an extravagant wine.

Yields - 1.5 TPA
Pick dates:September 28 - October 3, 2008

2007

2007 was a huge disaster for me. We installed an overhead sprinkler system in the mature vineyards this year, but it was actually the first vintage we had frost. Since ROV sits at high elevation, bud-break comes earlier to us than the rest of Santa Maria Valley. The weather was really cold on January 16th, and even though we hadn't had bud-break yet, the sap had already started to flow. Suffering from frost before bud-break damaged the vascular tissue of the vines, so when the weather finally came together, we waited and waited for shoot growth, but it never happened. It was a touchy call to make: do we pick what comes out or do we allow the vines to store carbohydrates for 2008? We wound up only picking 2 tons off the whole 8 acres - just one barrel made the cut on 07 Native⁹. The other three didn't make the cut.
 
Yields - .25 TPA
Pick date:Everything in on October 6, 2007
 

2006

I see this as a transitional year from where we were to where we are now. We had nice early rains in April and May (12 inches) that pushed the canopy growth and it was obvious that the vineyard was responding well to all that water. For a lot of people, 2006 presented the challenge of rot and bigger berries, but all of my wines are strong and solid. (Rot has never been a problem for us up on the windy ridge.) We had good shoot growth, maintained the canopy, and dripped into harvest; it took forever for everything to come together. It never popped - there wasn't a definitive weather moment where the fruit and the acidity were succinct on the vine.
 
Yields: 1.25 TPA
Pick dates:September 25 through October 2
 

2005

This was the picture-perfect growing season. If I could have this again and again and again, I'd be a happy man. It never got really hot, so the grapes kept nice acidity and lower pH. While the 2004 was big and ripe, and never showed green at all but extensions on the mouthfeel, 2005 took a little bit longer to come together in the bottle...but it will age beautifully and it's still my favorite vintage at ROV thus far. The weather was perfect: not too cold, not too hot. It was just right.
 
Yields: 1.5 TPA
Pick dates: Everything in on September 23, 2005
 

2004

The largest crop load from ROV to date. In 2004 we experienced a little Labor Day Indian summer heat that pushed most vineyards beyond ripeness, however I was anticipating the heat. I irrigated ahead of time to prevent the worst, and with the bigger crop load ROV was able to maintain. What is critical is that, after watching everyone else making really nice wines from my vineyard, I started paying more attention to lignification to consider whole-cluster fermentation, due mainly to the fact that I didn't want to have an overly-ripe Pinot Noir I wanted something elegant and feminine. So we did some lots 100% whole-cluster, some partial whole-cluster and then blended them together. That changed the course of how I wanted to make wine and how I wanted to farm the vineyard. In terms of canopy management and trellis systems, we used to do a lot of leaf-pulling to get sunlight exposure, and then we'd pick sometime between the first and third weeks of September because my vineyard has such a low potential crop load. (We've only ever gone above 2 tons per acre twice. ROV's yields are typically below 2 tons per acre.) We've moved away from that method and now we're doing interior leafing and lateral removal which decongests the canopy and lets less direct sunlight and more speckled light on the fruit. We used to irrigate more frequently with short durations in those early years, but now we're irrigating less frequently but for longer duration. We will always probably be fooling around with our methods.
 

2003

2003 was a pretty nice vintage for me although it's known on the Central Coast as a cold vintage that was plagued by "shatter" [when weather conditions prevent grapevine flowers from pollinating]. It's lucky for me that ROV usually ends up producing pretty nice grapes no matter what crazy weather is thrown at the Central Coast. Brian Loring, Brad Lowman of Waltzing Bear and I had fruit from ROV to make wine that year. I didnt use any stem-inclusion in 2003; the vintage didn't allow for it and I hadn't had my epiphany yet with the wines of the Loire and Dujac. I made 20 barrels of Native⁹ in 2003, however, it wasn't at a quality level to launch a brand with.
 

2002

A great vintage producing classic California Pinot Noir not unlike 2005: elegant and beautiful, not super-ripe or chunky. All of the chemistry was spot-on with low pH and higher acids, giving us good, mature fruit without being overripe. Foxen and Brian Loring received fruit, and Foxen produced a barrel for me using neutral oak with Pommard and 2A clones. This was the first wine of my own that I used to test the waters, and it was stunning. I knew I was on to something.
 

2001

Foxen, Loring, and Steve Dooley received fruit this year. I was living in Sonoma County, managing vineyards for Gallo, so I was doing a lot of driving. I wasn't around nearly as much as I would have liked.
 

2000

Everything was still so new, so I didn't make anything of my own this year. The little bit of fruit that did come off the ranch from the 5-year-old block went to Steve Dooley of Steve Ross Wines. This was a fairly warm vintage and is the year I planted the second blocks at Rancho Ontiveros: 3 acres of clones 1A, Benedict, and Swan.
 

1998

This year we planted 4 acres that would become Block 1: 12 rows of 114, 12 rows of 113, 4 rows of Pommard, 10 rows of 2A, and some mixed rows.
 

1997

We planted 1 acre of clone 115 this year.