“One of the people attending the pinot tasting described above was winegrower Eric Sussman, who has an impressive resume having worked at Dehlinger Winery and done apprentice work with the Domaines Comte Armand and Jacques Prieur in Burgundy. Over the course of the tasting, I was impressed with the various insights that Sussman had to offer and after some discussion, he later sent me the above wines to sample. These are handcrafted, very small production pinots that are made entirely in the Burgundian model and while Sussman stresses that he’s not trying to make Burgundy, he is trying to emulate their profound respect for the soil. To that end, there are no commercial yeasts or bacteria additions for the primary and secondary fermentations, no acidulation, no clarification or extract enzymes, there is a 7 to 10 day cold soak and the absolute minimum application of SO2. The 16 month élevage occurs in mostly 3 year air dried french oak barrels and wines were bottled without finning or filtration in January, 2004. These are very high quality wines, harmoniously blending new world fruit with time honored techniques. Check them out, I think that you’ll be impressed.”
–Allen Meadows