Freeman Winery

Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

In 2023, we got a taste of a European-style vintage in California. The 2022– 2023 winter was one of the coolest in years with well-above normal rainfall. This lasted right through the month of March, and we didn’t see budbreak in the vineyards until early April. This is just about 30 days later than average. Flowering began in late May, continuing into June, because of the delayed start to the season. Normal summer weather for us means lots of foggy nights and mornings with sunny, but cool afternoons. This was wonderful for fruit quality, but it also didn’t allow the vines to catch up to their normal timing. Instead of the harvest beginning in late August, we started picking during the last few days of September. The quality of the 2023 fruit was very good, with lower brix and higher acidity than we typically see.

Freeman’s own Gloria Estate made up 55% of the 2023 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. All five clones from Gloria are all in this RRV: Calera, Swan, Pommard, 115 and Martini. Gloria is always the backbone of our Russian River as it provides ripeness, structure and beautiful flavors to the blend.

The KR Ranch, formerly known as Keefer, had a bounce back year in 2023, and we were blessed with enough fruit so that 30% of the Russian River Valley Pinot Noir comes from KR. We’ve been working with this celebrated vineyard since 2004, the longest of all of our Pinot Noir vineyards. From KR, we receive Swiss clone 23 and Dijon clone 777. We also get Swiss clone 2A and Dijon 777 from Jim Pratt’s vineyard on Sexton Road. 15% of the Pinot in our 2023 RRV comes from Sexton.

The 2023 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir is deeply-colored in appearance and has an intriguing nose of blackberry compote, matsutake mushrooms and sandy loam soil. The acidity on the palate stands out and frames the ripe fruit flavors on the palate with some firm tannins coming through on the finish. This should be at its best from late 2025 through 2037.