When Jessica and Drew met Luc Morlet, consulting winemaker at Peter Michael, they knew they had found a kindred spirit. His expertise crafting small production Bordeaux-style wines from mountain vineyards, coupled with his knowledge of Knight's Valley, made Luc a perfect match for Linked Vineyards. His excitement to work with this exceptional Knights Valley Cabernet fruit made Linked the perfect match for Luc.
The wine they make is literally hand-crafted: the grapes are picked, sorted and crushed -- by hand. Winemaking starts in the vineyard with shoot and cluster thinning to get the right architecture in the canopy, allowing each cluster to develop a full range of deep flavors and color. Linked is typically one of the last vineyards in the area to begin harvest in order to get complex flavor development. The fruit is hand picked into small boxes and chilled overnight. Fully cooled, the clusters are hand sorted and gently de-stemmed. Then, the berries go through two additional stages of sorting, the final one done meticulously by hand. This fruit is hand-crushed and transferred to small tanks and oak puncheons, and allowed to cold-soak. Only native wild yeasts are used in the fermentation. The wine is aged for 16 months in artisan French cooperage. There is no filtration or fining prior to bottling, presenting a wine true to the fruit. Every step of the wine-making process is thoughtful and deliberate, allowing the character of the grapes, and the place they come from, to emerge in the wine.
While we can try our best to give a sense of this wine and its potential, the best thing to do is open a bottle and experience it yourself. You'll understand why this is such a special wine, from a special spot in Knight's Valley, made by people who have found real joy in its creation. Each bottle is hand numbered and registered to you. So you will always have a link to Linked Vineyards, and they to you.
$5.00 from each bottled purchased will be donated
to the Redwood Empire Food Bank
