The WineIn the glass the wine is a garnet color, producing classic Pinot aromas of rose petals, lightly-steeped black tea and ripe cherries. On the palate the wine is soft, silky and finishes with red fruit notes and inviting acidity.
The wine was crafted after hand-sorting the grapes, both at harvest and again upon arrival at the winery. Native yeast fermentation was allwed to start after a 7-day cold maceration, with 20% whole-cluster. Aged 10 months in oak barrels before bottling without fining or filtering.
The Gardener brand is the premium label for Horse & Plow winery, owned by Chris Condos & Suzanne Hagins. Their wines comply with most reasonable definitions of "natural" and "sustainable" - no GMOs, no additives, minimal/no sulphite additions, unfined/unfiltered...
The Winery
I like tasting wine in luxurious tasting rooms, but I also revel in time spent in "tasting barns" like the one Horse & Plow inhabits in the crunchy granola town of Sebastapol in Sonoma's Russian River area. This is a very small, family enterprise, headed by two wine industry vets.
Chris got his enology degree at Davis and has worked at Pine Ridge before starting Vinum Cellars (30,000 case production) and has been consulting winemaker for Kathryn Kennedy since 1998. Suzanne fell in love with wine while working in fine restaurants on the East Coast. Her passion led her to France, working at Comte Armand in Pommard, then out to CA in 2000, where she worked for DeLoach, David Bruce and Goldeneye before starting her own label, Lutea.
They combined their experience and formed Horse & Plow in 2008.
