Au Bon Climat 'La Bauge Au-dessus' Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2020

The complex, Old World character of dried cherry/cranberry, rose petal and cedar with subtle notes of leather and dark chocolate is reminiscent of an aged Burgundy from a superior domaine. La Bauge's hallmark is its remarkable integration and imminently drinkable character, which this has in adundance. The fruit is entirely from the highly regarded Bien Nacido Vineyard. The grapes were hand harvested and the Pinot Noir fermented in 5 ton open-top fermenters, which are punched down once or twice a day. These punch downs breakup the cap of skins that rises to the surface back into the juice so the fermentation process extracts the best part of the Pinot grapes. The wine is pressed to complete dryness then transferred to barrel with moderate lees. Our “La Bauge” Pinot Noir is aged in 50% new French oak barrels made by the cooper François Frères. The wine was carefully racked in the spring and then put backed to barrel. Total barrel aging was 20 months.  La Bauge Au-dessus translates as