Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012 Magnum
Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012 Magnum
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Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012 Magnum

Arnot-Roberts
$150.00

Grape: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2012
Type: Red

This red comes from the Peter Martin Ray Vineyard on Mt. Eden above Saratoga, replanted in 1979 on Franciscan shale at 1,400 feet. The vines are stake-trained and dry-farmed on soil so depleted that yields stay severely low without anyone deciding they should. The site traces back to some of the first pinot noir planted in California in the early 1940s, and much of the state's modern plant material came out of it. 7 barrels was the entire production.

It displays a translucent brick-ruby color, opening with aromas of dried cranberry, tea leaf, and crushed mint. On the palate, the light-bodied frame reads more like mountain Burgundy than California pinot noir, balancing tart red fruit against a dry, shale-driven bite. Tannins are slight but present, leaving a fine chalky drag across the finish. Acidity is bracing and has carried the wine well past a decade in magnum. It concludes dry and savory, with more herb and stone than fruit left at the end.

Arnot-Roberts was founded in 2001 in Healdsburg, California, by childhood friends Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts. Recognized as key figures in Northern California’s low-intervention wine movement, the duo bypassed regional conventions of high extraction and heavy oak to focus on cool-climate, high-elevation, and site-expressive vineyards. Sourcing fruit from dry-farmed and organically managed plots across the Sonoma Coast, Napa Valley, Santa Cruz Mountains, and Sierra Foothills, they work with a diverse spectrum of varieties—ranging from benchmark cabernet sauvignon, syrah, chardonnay, and pinot noir to rare plantings of ribolla gialla, trousseau, and gamay.

In the cellar, winemaking centers on minimal handling, early harvesting to maintain bright natural acidity, and low alcohol potential. Red grapes undergo high percentages of whole-cluster, native yeast fermentations in open-top vats before resting in neutral French oak barrels. Whites undergo direct pressing and lees aging in neutral wood and stainless steel. Bottled with minimal sulfur and without fining or filtration, Arnot-Roberts’s single-vineyard cuvées—such as their mountain-grown cabernet sauvignons (Clajeux and Fellom Ranch), savory syrahs (Que Syrah), and skin-contact ribolla gialla—are defined by laser-like mineral tension, savory herbals, and translucent structural grace.