Welcome to the dark side of Pinot Noir. Since Mark West’s founding in 1978, we’ve been totally devoted to crafting exceptional Pinot Noir using only the best fruit sourced from California’s coastal appellations. Mark West Black is a perfect example of what patience, hard work, and a passion for Pinot can produce.
Our deepest, darkest, smoothest wine, Mark West Black 2016 vintage is 80% Pinot Noir, 20% Syrah. This concentrated dark purple wine is full bodied, rich, and smooth, with notes of blackberry, currant, and a distinctive vanilla and mocha toastiness. Flavors of blackberry, black cherry, and cassis stand up to intense baking spice, vanilla, and mocha notes with a slight smokiness. This wine is mouthfilling and plush with a rewarding finish. For the Pinot enthusiast in everyone, Black is the new Noir.
2016 HARVEST:
The 2016 growing season was another incredible year for California wines. A mild winter followed by a warm spring brought a great bloom and fruit set. The result was a large crop with high quality fruit. Summer was ideal, with no rain and very few heat spikes. The fruit had time to develop flavors and sugar at the same rate, while maintaining acidity. The resulting wines show great depth, complexity, varietal intensity, and balance.
VITICULTURE:
Mark West Black offers a riper, more highly concentrated Pinot Noir blend, as compared to our California Pinot Noir. Grapes for this wine are sourced from premier, cool-climate growing regions that allow for longer hang time to produce complex, ripe flavors. Based on harvest conditions, sourcing may change between vintages to ensure we attain the target taste profile.
WINEMAKING:
Once the grapes enter the winery, Winemaker Jason Becker starts the winemaking process using the French Saignée method to remove some of the lighter-colored wine before it has time to soak on the grape skins. This increases the skin-to-wine ratio for the remaining liquid, increasing its flavor concentration and body, and ultimately producing a deeper-colored wine.
AGING: 8–10 months French oak, 50% new
TA: 6.3g/L
pH: 3.71
ALCOHOL: 13.5%
RS: 4.1g/L