STRAIGHT LINE WINE - VINEYARDS
2009 Straight Line Wine Mendocino County Pinot noir
This Pinot noir is comprised of fruit sourced from four different Mendocino County vineyards: Monument Tree Vineyard, Londer Vineyard, Roma’s Vineyard, and Oppenlander Vineyard.
Named for the enormous landmark redwood tree that sprouts up amidst the vines, the Monument Tree Vineyard was planted in 1999 to Dijon clones. The soils are comprised of gravelly loam, highlighted by a desirable north eastern sloping exposure with 300 foot elevations. This low-vigor site was originally planted by Duckhorn Vineyards and is now owned by Twomey Cellars. The highly regarded Londer Vineyard is situated in the Deep End of Anderson Valley. Surrounded by forests of conifers, most of the vineyard lies on south facing hills with an ideal combination of well-drained sandy loam covering an underlying clay loam. This creates the perfect environment for the slow development of flavors and structure, which produce excellent Pinot noir. Overlooking Anderson Valley at 1850 feet, Roma’s Vineyard is perfectly situated to take full advantage of the warm sun and cooler daytime temperatures, allowing the Pinot noir grapes more time to develop their intense flavors of black cherry, mineral and earth. The vineyard’s beautiful, classic Gold Ridge loam soils are planted to the Pommard clone. Organically farmed, this incredible property was managed by Couloir Wines in 2009. Outside of the small town of Comptche in Mendocino County, the Oppenlander Vineyard boasts a heavy clay loam soil, which is unique to the region and specific to this site. The vineyard’s situation, just north of Anderson Valley and a mere eight miles from the Pacific coast, allows the grapes to experience the advantages of its maritime climate; warm hours of sunlight balanced by cooler daytime temperatures. The vineyard is planted to Pommard and Dijon clones.
2010 Straight Line Wine Santa Barbara County Sauvignon blanc
The McGinley Vineyard is nestled in the pristine Happy Canyon appellation, just east of Santa Ynez, towards the southeastern perimeter of Santa Barbara County. With its coastal influence, this region provides warmer days and cooler evenings, allowing the fruit an extended growing period in which to develop flavor and character. The vineyard boasts a rare east-west orientation, capturing the cooling breezes from the nearby Pacific Ocean. The soils are primarily shallow, clay loam and studded with cobbles of red chert and serpentine, which were swept down into the canyon over thousands of years, and weathered for thousands more. This low vigor and low-nutrient topsoil forces the vine roots to grow laterally, stressing the vines and resulting in low yields of intense fruit.
2010 Straight Line Wine Santa Barbara County Syrah
The McGinley Vineyard is nestled in the pristine Happy Canyon appellation, just east of Santa Ynez, towards the southeastern perimeter of Santa Barbara County. With its coastal influence, this region provides warmer days and cooler evenings, allowing the fruit an extended growing period in which to develop flavor and character. Planted in 1995 to multiple Syrah clones, the vineyard boasts a rare east-west orientation capturing the cooling breezes from the nearby Pacific Ocean. The soils are primarily shallow, clay loam and studded with cobbles of red chert and serpentine, which were swept down into the canyon over thousands of years, and weathered for thousands more. This low vigor and low-nutrient topsoil forces the vine roots to grow laterally, stressing the vines and resulting in low yields of intense fruit.
2010 Straight Line Wine California Tempranillo
This Tempranillo is comprised of fruit from three different California vineyards: Madder Lake Vineyard, Liberty Oaks Vineyard and the Terra Alta Vineyard. The terroir and innate qualities from these three vineyards combine to make the whole of this wine greater than its individual parts.
Madder Lake is a rugged mountain-side vineyard north of Napa Valley in Clear Lake. With altitudes reaching 2,200 feet and iron-rich volcanic soil with boulders the size of small cars, this low vigor vineyard yields intense fruit with big blue and black fruit, spice, tar and tannin.
The Liberty Oaks Vineyard, in the Jahant appellation of Lodi, is farmed by esteemed vineyard manager and vintner, Markus Bokisch. The air is warm and the soils volcanic clay loam, forcing the vines to reach deep into the earth for nutrients. The result is Tempranillo with plush, purple fruit flavors, spice and dramatic richness on the palate.
The first two vineyards create the frame, but the final piece of the blend comes from Graciano, an ancient and rare Spanish variety, grown in the Terra Alta Vineyard in Lockeford, CA. The variety and vineyard combination creates the magical component to complete this wine by rounding out the mid-palate with a core of red fruit sweetness. The vineyard is CCOF.
