2005 Akiko's Cuvée

Click here to Download/Print
Vineyards:	Keefer 44%, O'Connor 20%, Thorn Ridge 18%, Rayhill 18%
Fermentation:	5 day cold soak in open top fermenters, hand punched down 1 to 3 times per day, free run sent directly to barrel, press wine settled and barreled separately
Barrel Aging:	10 months in 100% French oak, 35% new, 41% one year old, and 24% two year old barrels
Bottled:	July 25, 2006
Production:	375 cases 750ml, 20 cases 1.5L

Each vintage since our inaugural 2002, Freeman has released an Akiko's Cuvée. Akiko and Ken Freeman, with winemaker Ed Kurtzman, taste each barrel of Pinot in the winery from a given vintage and choose their favorites. Then, each person's favorite barrels are put together in a blend (or cuvée), and we subsequently taste each of the blends, blind, so that no one knows whose favorite barrels are in which blend. For the 4th year in a row, Akiko's blend was everyone's first choice.

It is no secret that Akiko Freeman likes the Keefer Ranch Pinot Noir, so that is why it is the largest component of the 2005 Akiko's Cuvée. All 3 of the clones we received from Keefer in 2005 are represented in the blend: 23, 114 and 777. The O'Connor Vineyard, Freeman's newest source in 2005, was also chosen to go into the Akiko's Cuvee. Akiko had a strong preference for the 115 clone from O'Connor.

Equal amounts of Ted Klopp's Thorn Ridge Vineyard and the Rayhill Vineyard rounded out the '05 Akiko's. In 2005 we received the Swan selection Pinot Noir from Thorn Ridge. It was truly one of the wines of the year at Freeman. Also, we were able to take 6 tons of William Rayhill's Pinot Noir in 2005, up from only 1 ton in 2004. The clones planted at Rayhill are 115, 667, 777 and 828 and we blended them all into one of our open top fermenters.

The 2005 Akiko's Cuvée has an exotic, flowery nose that is comprised of rose petals and jasmine. The feel on the palate is firm and tightly-knit, but softens with decanting and/or time in the glass. There is an extremely long finish which tends to predict this will be a very long-lived wine. In some ways the '05 Akiko's is reminiscent of the '05 Keefer Pinot Noir, but it is also similar to the '05 Sonoma Coast. We anticipate the 2005 Akiko's Cuvée to reach maturity around 2009.