Dutton-Goldfield’s mission is to craft world-class wines that express the personalities of their cool-climate home, through a brightness of fruit, complexity, structure and balance. The winery was born of a handshake in a vineyard in 1998, when longtime colleagues and friends Steve Dutton and Dan Goldfield recognized this shared vision.

At Dutton-Goldfield, our pinot is hand sorted and destemmed into small open top fermenters and the must is then cold-soaked for 5 days to gently extract color, spice and fruit characters, while mitigating harsher tannins. The three blocks at Fox Den were fermented and barreled separately to optimize what we most love about each, then blended to our tastes in March. The core is the plush more strawberry 777 clone, then half as much of the blackberry, focused 667 clone. One of the pleasures of the spring blending is getting to hone barrel choices. Fox Den is all about the floral notes of Remond Trancais, but Taransaud holds down the bass tones, and Rousseau adds structure. The wine was bottled in February after 16 months in oak.

Pretty notes of violet and bay leaf add layers of complexity. The energetic mouth leads with red raspberry, strawberry, and pomegranate, framed by dark cherry accents. The wine finishes long and fresh, with a touch of toasted caramel at the end.