In the Service of Lightness

When we started our Pinot Noir harvest this fall, a neighbor stopped by with a grin on his face and asked, "Are they ripe already?" He wasn't planning on harvesting Pinot for another three weeks. But I knew mine were ripe, and I wanted to get them to the cellar quickly — at 98 Oechsle, I wouldn't want them any riper.

It has been an exceptionally hot, dry summer, and the grapes have responded the way grapes do: more sugar, thicker skins, in places a raisiny concentration that would not be out of place in an Amarone. This will be a riper, richer vintage than the ones before it — which creates a bit of a conflict for me. On one side is everything I actually want from a glass of Pinot Noir: lightness, freshness, finesse, the kind of elegance that gets out of its own way. On the other side is the plain fact, confirmed to me again and again, that most people who drink wine want the opposite. They want opulence. They want weight, ripeness, richness — wine that announces itself.

I saw this clearly at the Wine Date tasting in Lucerne last weekend. The people who already knew my wines, who came to the table because they wanted my wines, left happy — as always. But most of the people who simply wandered up for a tasting didn't know what to make of a Pinot Noir this pale. Some even thought I'd poured them a rosé.

So yes — this vintage will lean riper than what you're used to from me. But I'm not simply letting the summer have its way. I picked a portion of the fruit very early this year for sparkling, and I'll be blending some of that back into the red wines — a small correction aimed at keeping some freshness and balance in a year that wants to run hot.

But come to think of it, this is maybe just perfect the way it is. Right now I have my 2023 vintage on sale, and it's just the way I want it — elegant, fine-boned, with a finesse that works every time. But if you're the kind of drinker who wants more opulence, more ripeness, more generosity in the glass, the 2026 will be waiting for you. Everybody gets a vintage to love. That seems like a fair way for a vineyard to run.

And if you can't wait that long for something bigger: I still have a few cases of the Pinot Noir Alpberg 2018 on hand — another generous year, already aged and ready to drink. Just ask.