PINOT NOIR

I called the pick at Deer Ridge Trail Vineyard in Santa Cruz Mountains on September 22nd. There was over an inch of rain and a lot of humidity suddenly forecasted on 9/24, and I’d sampled the site the week before, fermenting grapes in a Tupperware container. Sugar ripeness was close on all the clones, with the lower hill riper than the upper bench, but there were a lot of green seeds in my sample still. No Pinot had been picked in the Corralitos area yet, from what I was hearing, and the green seed thing was a topic of discussion. However, the Tupperware juice was incredible on day four, with plenty of color, aroma and flavor.

A new clone for me out of Deer Ridge this year is 943. It’s a clone with many interesting backstories - one is that it’s a seedless clone (because it has what people call chicks and hens, with tiny berries that never form seeds, surrounded by plump berries with seeds). It’s also one of the only clones where US nurseries have to pay a French royalty on every vine sold in the US, so not many nurseries sell it. I’m really happy I was able to get three bins of it this year, as the color was incredible at the very start of fermentation, and like all three lots I fermented, its wild yeasts did the job well, and the natural malolactic fermentation finished up smoothly in six weeks. There are currently two barrels of this resting in Tin City, having received their first dose of sulfur.

Clonal variations of Pinot Noir at Deer Ridge Trail Vineyard, Corralitos, Santa Cruz Mountains.

As always, the soul of the Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir from here is this amazing block of Mount Eden Clone. Three bins were harvested and the wine is now resting in two barrels too. The last component, what the vineyard manager Prudy Foxx calls the backbone of the wine, is the Swiss clone Wadenswil or 2A, that is grown at the shadier, upper bench of Deer Ridge Trail. I worked with this clone at Bassi Vineyard in Avila Beach, where those vines also produced these large beautiful clusters. 2A is usually the last clone to ripen at Deer Ridge Trail, but when picked early, brings in snappy bright red fruits and natural acid to the blend. Because of that acid, it took two extra weeks to complete malolactic than the 943 and the Mount Eden, and I’ve got three barrels of the backbone aging peacefully at the moment.

Assistant Vineyard manager Nick Pisano texted me two days after the pick, saying it was hammering down rain at the property, and it was a good thing we picked. It wouldn’t be the first big rain during harvest 2025.

Mount Eden clone Pinot Noir halfway through fermentation.

SYRAH

And my second wine of the year, a part of Delmore wines since 2017, is Stolo Vineyard Syrah in Cambria. These grapes weathered the October 13th rainstorm event and handled it like I’d never seen grapes handle it before. People say Cabernet and Syrah are so hardy, the clusters looser in structure, allowing more airflow, that they can tolerate rain and humidity late in the season far better than tighter clusters like Chardonnay or the thin skinned Pinot Noir. I saw it for myself, and I have to commend the crew at Parr Collective for their excellent farming. The fruit quality here continues to rise. 2023 and 2024 were excellent years at Stolo, but 2025 is something special.

Harvested Monday November 3rd, the crew picked five bins out of the Alban clone block, and my good friend Levi hauled them to Tin City to start crushing by 1 pm. I fermented in two open top bins, and thanks to a healthy little pied-du-cuve culture I’d taken at Stolo the week prior, fermentation kicked off in three days. The Syrah spent fourteen days on the skins, and on Monday November 17th we gravity drained the free run directly into two neutral French oak puncheons, and filled my original 2017 Delmore barrique with the pressings. There’s always an insane amount of Malic acid at Stolo, so currently all three vessels are bubbling their way through malolactic fermentation, likely to finish in February or March. I tasted a puncheon on Monday and was floored with the color, pepper power and floral aromas, and promise of what will likely be the finest Stolo Vineyard Syrah yet.

Draining to press Stolo Syrah in Tin City, November 14, 2025.

I’ve learned not to count these chickens before they hatch. That said, if all continues to go well and I don’t F things up, I’ll be releasing these two gorgeous wines on here in early September. Til then, thanks for reading, and Happy New Year! - Darren

HARVEST 2025 REPORT

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