About 2016 Bien Nacido Estate The Captain Pinot Noir:
Awarded 95 Points by Matt Kettmann, Wine Enthusiast
Tasting Notes:
2016 Bien Nacido Estate The Captain Pinot Noir wildly dynamic aromas kick off the nose of this reserve bottling, from raw meat and matsutake mushrooms to sour cranberry and rosemary needles. The gamy, earthy experience expands on the sip, where mulberry, black-pepper, dried and raw meats and cherry-pit flavors arise. It’s almost Syrah-like in its savory showing
Barrel Selection:
Oak
Growing Notes:
Vineyard uses organic farming methods.
Winemaking Notes:
Hand-harvested at night and fermented with native yeast and malolactic fermentation.
About The Winery:
One of the oldest cool-climate vineyards in California and home of the world’s most single vineyard designations, Bien Nacido Vineyard has been an acclaimed source of world-glass grapes and estate wine since its founding in 1973 by brothers Stephen and Bob Miller.
Meaning ‘well born’ in Spanish, Bien Nacido was planted on the historic site of the Rancho Tepusquet land grant, a plot of land that was granted to Tomás Olivera in 1837, when California was still a part of Mexico. The Olivera Family’s adobe, built in 1857, still graces the estate today.
Purchased by the Miller Family in 1969, what is now Bien Nacido Vineyard began as the shared vision of brothers Bob and Steve Miller – to develop a vineyard that would be acknowledged as among the elite vineyards of the world. Four years of hard work led to the original vineyard plantings – 300 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Since then, under the Miller Family’s stewardship, Bien Nacido Vineyard has become one of the most coveted sources of cool-climate Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah in California.