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We are excited to unveil a new bottling of Pinot Noir from our winery. This blend is composed of several lots from Fe Ciega Vineyard with a very small amount of wine from Rancho Santa Rosa Vineyard. The Fe Ciega portion is a blend of three of the four blocks in the vineyard that were transferred out of barrels in early October 2008 and stored in a stainless steel tank until the wine was bottled in January. Thus, this lot received about three months less barrel aging than the lots that have gone into our regular Fe Ciega bottling.

We decided to create this "budget" version of Fe Ciega in order to offer our customers a wonderful Pinot Noir from the Santa Rita Hills at a more affordable price. With less oak aging, this blend definitely has more of a feminine personality than our traditional Fe Ciega blend. This inspired the name, "Lovely Rita".

The wine has a beautiful, medium dark purple/ruby color. The aromas are a mixture of herbs, black tea, strawberries and cranberries. On the palate, the wine is medium bodied with delicious flavors of an array of red berries with a hint of black pepper in the finish. The tannins are very light, and the acidity gives the wine a long refreshing finish. The pedigree of this wine makes the Lovely Rita Pinot Noir a great value. Enjoy with veal, duck, and salmon.

Rick Longoria, Winemaker
June 1, 2009

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir
Vineyards: Fe Ciega vineyard – 98%
Rancho Santa Rosa vineyard – 2%
Production: 249 cases
Alcohol by volume: 13.9%
pH: 3.74
Titratable acidity: .54 g/100 ml.
Cellaring potential: 3-5 years
Bottle price: $32.00

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