Dierberg Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2006

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    Guide
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Dierberg Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2006 Front Label
Dierberg Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2006 Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2006

Size
750ML

Your Rating

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

The 2006 Dierberg Pinot Noir has proven to be somewhat atypical and is a departure from our big, burly house style. The wine exhibits the "sauvage" sage-like note that has come to define the wines from our vineyard, but envelops it in a more elegant frame. It is a sublime and classy wine, with delicate aromas of tea leaf, raspberry and forest floor and a sneaky structural component that keeps it firm and age worthy. The wine is perhaps more Audrey Hepburn than Brigitte Bardot in style. Enjoy this lithe and beautiful wine now with simply flavored food, or age for as many as 10 years to enhance the sage and forest floor notes that characterize the vintage.

Professional Ratings

  • 91
    Sweet, optimally ripened, cherry-like fruit is accented with deft touches of milk chocolate, flowers and sweet spice throughout the considerable length of this concentrated and keenly focused young Pinot, and, if very well-balanced and so showy as to beg early drinking, this fleshy wine is built with a fine spine of silky tannins that bodes quite well for age. Drink it now if you must with the likes of a rare rack of lamb, but we are planning to set a few bottles aside for three or four years and suggest that you do the same thing.

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Dierberg

Dierberg

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Dierberg, California
Dierberg Winery Video

In 1996, with forty years of winemaking experience, Jim and Mary Dierberg’s dream of producing wines worthy of their 250 year plan became a reality. After a long search through France and Napa, while learning the craft and making wine in the mid-west, they discovered the potential of Santa Barbara’s cool coastal valleys. The family planted two estates -first their namesake Dierberg Vineyard and later Drum Canyon Vineyard – both under their DIERBERG label. These estates, along with the family’s iconic warm climate site Star Lane Vineyard, culminated in a trio of peerless properties in Santa Barbara County.

Jim and Mary are no newcomers to wine. Since 1974, they’ve owned the Hermannhof Winery in Hermann, Missouri, which was one of the United States’ most significant wine-growing regions prior to Prohibition. Located about an hour’s drive west of St. Louis, Hermannhof is one of America’s oldest wineries. The Dierbergs have dedicated the past 40 years to renovating the property and raising its reputation as a place for education and entertainment. While the town’s history and charm brought the Dierbergs to Hermann, the region’s Midwestern climate cannot support the traditional European varietals that Jim and Mary have become fans of over the years. In the 1980s, the Dierbergs began looking outside of Missouri for a place to plant that passion. After realizing that properties in Bordeaux and Napa Valley weren’t suitable for their desires, they chanced upon the Santa Barbara area in 1996.

Today, the entire operation is one big family affair, with the Dierbergs’ grown children and their spouses intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the vineyard and winery.

Esteemed winemaker, Tyler Thomas started with Dierberg and Star Lane Vineyards in the Summer of 2013. His affinity with the Central Coast started early, with his first full-time harvest job, at Fiddlehead Cellars. Though his career later steered him up to Sonoma, his recent return has been welcomed. “The entire valley made its imprint on me then as I sampled vineyards in both Happy Canyon and Sta. Rita Hills. To be returning now after 10 years to make site driven estate wines is thrilling.”

Thomas has desired to produce wines of special character consistently and efficiently each vintage. “My goal is to make wines that please by their compelling nature. That is you find yourself both hedonistically and intellectually compelled to go back to the wine over and over again. Many wines can draw your first glance, but I want one that can sustain your desire.” Thomas believes that to do this we must cultivate not only vineyards and wine, but people. “I believe the greatest wines are not made but discovered by quality oriented individuals.” Many say that great wine starts in the vineyard (and it does), but Tyler’s goal will be to distill what truly makes an impact to the governing components of why a wine tastes the way it tastes and focus on those things. These vineyards offer an incredible viticulture wonderland for continuing to discover the compelling nature of their terroirs.

Thomas is responsible for the day-to-day details of winemaking, from harvest to the final blending of the wines. He completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Botany at Colorado State University, and received a masters in Viticulture and Enology at U.C. Davis.

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Santa Maria Valley lies mainly in northern Santa Barbara County, with a small portion of it overlapping southern San Luis Obispo County. It is close to the Pacific, and runs east-west, which means warmer air in the eastern end draws cool air off the ocean in the west, and brings it through the valley. This effect, combined with abundant sunshine, lengthens the growing season. The longer growing season leads to long hang time, which promotes both ripeness and optimal acidity levels in grape berries. As early as the 1970’s, Santa Maria Valley was recognized as being a superior source of wine grapes, certainly including Chardonnay and Syrah. But arguably the top variety here is Pinot Noir.

Originally a domain primarily of growers, including the Miller Family of the justifiably famous Bien Nacido Vineyard, this AVA is now home to over 30 wineries. Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir consistently offers full flavors of cherry, strawberry and raspberry, often accompanied by notes of spice, cola, vanilla and earth. They show impressive balance and elegance, as well as great versatility with food.

HNYDIGPNR06C_2006 Item# 98039

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