2020 Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Vineyard Pinot Noir
VARIETAL: Pinot Noir
REGION: Santa Cruz, California, USA
VITICULTURE: Organic
WINEMAKER: Duncan Arnot Meyers & Nathan Lee Roberts
"The Peter Martin Ray Vineyard is on Mt. Eden in the Northeastern Santa Cruz Mountains, above the town of Saratoga. This site dates to the late 1800s, and was one of the first to be planted to Pinot Noir in California in the early 1940s. The vineyard is now of historical significance as many of today’s modern Pinot Noir plantings have been made with genetic material taken from it. Replanted in 1979, these old, stake-trained, dry-farmed vines cling precipitously to the extremely rocky and depleted Franciscan Shale soils at 1400’ elevation. The vineyard is still owned and overseen by Peter Martin Ray, the son of legendary California vintner Martin “Rusty” Ray, with assistance from local Santa Cruz legend, Rick Anzalone. This unpolished site is extremely exposed with soils that are notoriously nutrient poor, leading the vines to struggle for survival while severely limiting yields. The resulting wines we have made from this site have remained true to their mountain-grown roots; we feel they are a nod to the rich history of this fabled mountain. We are honored to work with the Ray family and look forward to contributing to the legacy that has been laid down on this hill for generations."
Since foundation 2001, Arnot-Roberts has been one of the most progressive and revolutionary producers on the California landscape. Initially their focus was just on making great Californian wines, but when the cool 2005 vintage gave them wines in a more austere, high acid style than the region was used to, Nathan and Duncan reacted completely differently to practically everyone else in California – they loved them and decided to pursue lower ripeness levels and higher acidity in all of their wines henceforth.
Their focus shifted to the best cool climate sites they could find, most of which were struggling to sell their fruit due to the obsession with high sugar levels that was pervasive at the time. Vineyards like Clary Ranch, Fellom Ranch, Luchsinger and Griffin’s Lair are lauded today, but not long ago it was only Nathan and Duncan that wanted their fruit.
Winemaking at Arnot-Roberts borrows from both the old world and new. While each wine gets its own regime, the general technique is decidedly low-tech, and includes indigenous fermentations, little or no new wood, and whole-cluster inclusion for the red wines. Intervention is minimal - just a conscientious addition of SO2 prior to bottling.