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2006 KARMEN ISABELLA PINOT NOIR
The Wine
This wine has a soft garnet color with light cherry and a hint of mint, blending flavors of ripe raspberry and cherry on the palate with a soft and silky strawberry finish. The wine is picture perfect right now and will pair well with fowl and poultry dishes that incorporate soft herbs to accentuate the wine.
The Vineyard
Dutton Ranch farms over eighty unique, separate vineyards located in the coolest areas of the Russian River Valley, primarily in the sub-appellation known as the Green Valley. We have selected our favorite vineyards from our family’s Dutton Ranch to craft wines reflecting our vision of a signature Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. The Karmen Isabella Reserve is named after the Dutton’s youngest daughter and is a blend of reserve barrels. This blend of barrels shows a balance of red fruits with lush texture. The vines planted in the Gold Ridge type soil historically produce wines of this consistent character.
The Winemaking
After de-stemming into small open top fermenters, the must is cold-soaked for 5 days to gently extract spice and fruit characters, while extenuating harsher tannins. We punch down by hand up to four times daily, according to the stage of the fermentation. Each vineyard or block is fermented separately enabling us to afford optimization of each vineyard according to its needs, and to provide us with the most flexibility for blending. After fermentation, the individual lots are pressed and racked into French oak to age. We selected each barrel for this reserve bottling of 2006 and blended them to allow the wine to marry and settle before bottling in July 2006.
Tech Notes 
2006 Karem Isabella Pinot Noir
2004 Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir (sold out)
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