Pinot Noir McDougall Ranch 2017

WINERY KUTCH

Jamie Kutch represents a new generation of winemakers in America. He is a career changer, was a broker on Wall Street, a spoiled city kid, and came to wine by chance. Today, eight years later, he is already considered one of California's great Pinot Noir exponents, whose excitingly independent wines are made in a rudimentary artisanal way in a rented tin hall in an industrial area in Sonoma. Career changers like him often see things differently, more loosely, more detached, less uptight. The more he tasted Pinot Noirs from around the world, the more the desire arose to produce Pinot Noirs and Chardonnay with less alcohol than is customary in California. He wanted his wines to be as natural and unadorned as possible.

The more he studied Pinot Noir, the more he was fascinated by the different winemaking schools and styles that are rarely talked about in Burgundy, but which characterize its wines so differently. After a visit to Romanee-Conti and an in-depth conversation with its co-director Aubert de Villaine, he decided in 2007 to ferment Pinot Noirs with stems and stalks, that is, without destemming. No sooner said than done. Simple, open-top fermentation tanks were quickly purchased, and he found grapes from top-notch grape growers on the Sonoma Coast. But it was not an easy road. Many steps were necessary to actually ferment and macerate 100% with stems and stems from 2012.