THE HEART OF BETHEL HEIGHTS VINEYARD IS PINOT NOIR. More than half the vineyard, over thirty acres, is planted to Pinot noir, in seven different sections. Over the years certain blocks have given us wines of distinctive character deserving special designation, most consistently the Southeast Block and the Flat Block.

The Flat Block yields the most refined and elegant of our Pinot noirs, beautifully balanced, with a specificity of aroma and flavor that transcends vintage differences. Wines from the Flat Block have been bottled as separate reserves since 1992.

The Flat Block is a 3.3 acre section planted in 1979 on a flat table (hence the name) slightly inclined to the south, directly above the neighboring Southeast Block at about 520 feet altitude. As in the Southeast Block, the vines are 100% Pommard clone, 540 vines per acre, spaced eight feet by ten feet. The vines are vertically trellised and the crop is held close to two tons per acre.

All the soils of Bethel Heights are volcanic in origin, but the soil of the Flat Block is shallower and more gravelly in texture than the neighboring Southeast Block. Burgundian soil consultants recently confirmed that the rocks of the Flat Block have a different mineral compostion from the rocks underlying the Southeast Block, which helps explain why these two blocks produce wines of such distinctly different character. The distinctions become increasingly apparent with age, both of the vines and the wines.

Harvest date: October 17, 1999
Grapes at harvest: Brix : 23.6, pH: 3.39, TA: 7.5 gr/liter
Finished wine: Alcohol 13.5 %, pH: 3.61, TA: 5.5 gr/liter
Barrel aged 11 months in Center of France oak, 40% new
340 Cases produced
Bottled unfiltered, September 2000
Suggested Retail $35

The 1999 vintage: Cold rainy weather throughout the spring and early summer left the vineyards a whole month behind their normal timetable. The crop was thinned drastically in early August to give it the best possible chance to ripen, then an unprecedented stretch of warm sunny weather that lasted through the end of October brought the fruit to peak maturity under optimal conditions.