Argyle Extended Tirage Brut Sparkling

Description

”2002 Extended Tirage Brut Tasting Notes Only time can bring out the depth of flavors and aromas that our Extended Tirage develops. In this 2002 vintage Extended Tirage, the nose has delicate layers of cut pear, shortbread cookie, flan, persimmon, quince, and funnel cake. Despite being ten years in the bottle, this wine is delightfully fresh and there is no shortage of glorious bubbles welcoming flavors of crisp red pear, straw notes and crusty baguette. The wines natural acidity brings a fresh crispness that magically melts and somehow goes creamy on the wines long finish. The 2002 Extended Tirage is another example of a wine that has taken a decade to craft, but the wait has been well worth it.Winemaker’s Production Notes The 2002 vintage was one of those nerve crunching, hang in at the plate until you work up to a full count, then smack a sweet fast ball right out of the park! Translation An unsettling growing season with a smashing finish. A warm but unsettled Spring wrought large clusters but with the diversity of berry size we like to see – what we call peas and pumpkins. Just as in 2001, we were required to drastically drop clusters in August, leaving one to no clusters per vine shoot. In late September and early October we had a couple of rain scares dropping up to a half inch of rain each event. On October 5th the prediction was two inches rain in a weeks time! On October 6 the rain was dropped from the forecast and the longest Indian Summer on record ensued. We were able to pick fruit at its peak of ripeness under sunny skies and with limited chaos on the crush pad. As always, our grapes were harvested into small baskets. After gently transporting them to the winery, they were first chilled to 35 degrees F before de-stemming and gently crushing into small open-top fermentation vats. Prior to alcoholic fermentation they underwent a 4-5 day cold maceration. After fermentation they received a second short maceration before being pressed. The new wine was then aged nine months in French oak barrels before it was bottled, unfined and unfiltered.” – Argyle