I just harvested and made wine from about 60 vines of what the nursery told me was "the Davis clone of pinot noir". The bundles of rooted cuttings were marked "Gamay Beaujelais". The first wine I made from these vines in
2002 (vines were in the third year) was really watery and tasteless. Not at all like the pinot noir I desired. I added some concentrate to beef it up, and made a passable red wine, but not pinot noir. I thought maybe it was due to not removing some of the juice (seigneur?) so this year i removed
20% of the juice and let it set for about 30 days on the skins, (under argon last 15 days). Same story. Really low flavor intensity, dissapointing color. (I used Rapidase EX) So now I am wondering about this clone. I also notice that pinot noir is not made commercially in this area. We had 22 days over
100 degrees this summer with very low humidity, but the nights are always
70 or below, and 50 or less during ripening. TA was .9, brix 22.5. Any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated!