This estate wine is named after the owner Akiko's nephew.
'13 is the first vintage.
2018 was a bumper harvest, with twice as many grapes as the previous year.
With each clone coming out of harvest in near perfect condition, the winery was operating at full capacity.
As a result, the 2018 Akiko's Cuvée and Sonoma Coast bottlings are primarily made from grapes from Yuki Estate.
Yuki's bottling is a barrel selection of 25 barrels.
This is a wine from a perfect vintage that exudes "Sonoma Coast style."
The color is deep and exudes youthfulness.
It has a very attractive aroma of plum, strawberry, fresh herbs and French oak.
The taste is more robust compared to Yuki's previous vintages, with aromas of morel mushrooms typical of Pinot Noir, moderate acidity and firm tannins.
Best drunk from 2020 to 2029.
Yuki Estate is Freeman's own vineyard, located on a hill 300m above sea level, about 8km inland from the Pacific Ocean near the village of Occidental.
The farm, purchased by the Freemans in 2007, is surrounded by large redwood trees and was named after Akiko Freeman's nephew (Yuki).
In order to protect the trees, we donated part of the property (approximately 9 hectares) to the Bodega Land Trust.
The vines are planted with Heritage and Dijon clones.
Yuki's vineyard consists of five different plots.
The grapes from the three plots currently used for vinification are a Dijon clone (114,667,828) and a Swiss clone (Mariafeld/clone 23, Wadenswil/clone 2A).
In the future, grapes from the remaining two plots, which are planted with two heritage clones, Mt. Eden and Calera, will be used.
Freeman Vineyards & Winery was founded in 2001 by Ken Freeman and his wife Akiko, a Roppongi native.
Fifteen years ago, when the two had just met, they hit it off as lovers of elegant and sophisticated Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and dreamed of one day producing wines in California that had the complex flavor and captivating power of Burgundy.
In order to establish a winery that can rival the world, we will begin inspecting over 300 vineyards and farms, focusing on vineyards planted on cool, gentle slopes.
As a result, they chose Sonoma Valley, a region shrouded in fog and influenced by cool sea breezes blowing inland from the coast.
The grapes grown there ripen slowly, retaining fresh acidity and resulting in great purity and flavour.
When Freeman was founded in the 2000s, California was in the midst of a boom in the production and consumption of fruit-forward wines, but the company remained uninfluenced by such trends and stuck to its belief of brewing well-balanced, elegant wines based on organic farming.
As a result, Freeman's wine style began to attract attention not only in California but also around the world, and its wines were included on the wine lists of famous restaurants around the world, growing into a small but well-known brand.
In April 2015, a bottle of Ryofu Chardonnay from the 2013 vintage was served at the White House official dinner hosted by former President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, catapulting the wine into the limelight.
As of 2019, Akiko is the only Japanese female winemaker and owner of a winery and vineyard in California, and she continues to produce modest, sharp, high-quality wines.