Domaine Carneros The Famous Gate Pinot Noir 2020

The growing season combined interesting aspects of two recent vintages. As noted above, the temperatures in 2018 tracked identically with 2011, but the vintages were markedly different due to flowering dates and crop load. The 18-crop load was similar to that in 12 on our ranches, and I think it was identical for the same reason – unchecked cell expansion after set due to prolonged cool weather. At the end of the day, we were quite lucky that we had only one rain event on the first day of October. This may have been a blessing for wineries, giving them some breathing room to open up more tanks.