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Quin’s Vineyard: Block 2 Pinot Noir

Our Story

Enjoying wines with friends and family are some of my best memories growing up in the Chicago suburbs.  These wines were often accompanied by very tasty foods.  When my wife and I moved to the Central Coast of California in 1992, we found ourselves living in an extremely high quality viticultural area of California.  Twelve days after arriving on the Central Coast, we were fermenting grapes in a 32 gallon food grade plastic barrel in the basement.  We were hooked.  After 13 years of home winemaking and UC Davis Viticulture and Enology classes, we released our first vintage of Etnyre Wines in 2005.  We remain a micro winery with clear focus on our 2 acre estate vineyard producing the finest small volume lots on the Central Coast of California.  
Winemaking is the perfect blend of art and science.  The innumerable decision points along the way to producing each vintage provide us with the opportunity to express our fruit in the best possible manner.  We enjoy the challenge of farming, having planted our 2 acre vineyard to Pinot Noir and Syrah.  Many mentors from the local winemaking community and wine industry have provided invaluable guidance to us, continuously learning how to improve our vineyard and wines.
Quin’s Vineyard

 

Named after our son, Quin’s Vineyard is located in Arroyo Grande, California.  We are one of the closest local vineyards to the Pacific Ocean – at 3.5 miles from the water. This proximity to the ocean has a profound effect on our viticultural practices, with climate moderating maritime influences year-round. Quin’s Vineyard is in the San Luis Obispo County AVA, immediately adjacent to the Arroyo Grande AVA.  Our hillside vineyard is southeast facing in the valley with an east to west orientation.  This orientation permits the summertime fog to cool the grapes routinely in the evenings and early mornings throughout the growing season. The fog typically retreats by the late morning, allowing the sun to ripen the grapes slowly.  This longer growing season adds complexity to our wines.

We began planting Quin’s Vineyard in 1998.  We worked with John Alban of Alban Wines to propagate the vines, with the Syrah clone Alban 1 from Alban Vineyards and our initial Pinot Noir cuttings being the 2A clone from Rosemary’s Vineyard (a very select portion of Talley Vineyards plantings).  All of the original plantings are on 5 x 8 foot spacing with 5C rootstock.  

Once we began to ferment the first vintage from the vineyard, we were able to appreciate the wine quality this site could produce. It was immediately obvious that planting additional vines was necessary. We added half an acre of 1 x 2 meter planting of Pinot Noir clones 114, 667, and 777 as well as an additional block of Alban 1 Syrah. All of the subsequent plantings were on 101-14 rootstock. A single row of own-rooted Torrontés, an Argentinian white varietal, was planted within the original Syrah block. These grapes are harvested and co-fermented with the Syrah, producing our own spin on one of the finest regions of the Rhône – the Côte Rôtie.  Our current planted acreage is more than triple the original. Our friends have suggested that we need to utilize all of the land at our site, and note that bulldozing our home may be required.

Quin’s Vineyard consistently produces wines with exceptional structure, laser-like purity of fruit, and a remarkably long finish. We remain excited to open our inaugural vintage, the 2005 wines which beautifully demonstrate the complexities of secondary and tertiary aged wines, while also including unexpected vibrant and robust fruit. We believe this persistent and age-worthy bramble and forest floor mid palate found in the 2005 wines is due to the remarkable quality of fruit from Quin’s Vineyard.  

-Ethan Etnyre, owner and vintner