Mount Eden Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir 2013
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Pinot Noir Estate is one of the stars from the appellation, and the vintage. Offering fabulous notes of black cherries, currants, crushed rocks and sous bois, this beauty hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, building tannin and a killer finish. This is a sensational Pinot Noir that can be enjoyed today, or cellared for a decade or more.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is wound extremely tight, but opens like a lotus with decanting or overnight patience. Aromas of rose buds, black-raspberry extract, wet clay and dried purple flowers show on the nose, bolstered by the slightest smoky kiss of oak. Savory flavors of roasted black-plum skins and elderberry meet with soy, graphite and loam on the palate, which will gain amazing tertiary flavors with time. Drink 2018–2028.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
To love Pinot Noir, one must enjoy life to the fullest, the 2013 Mount Eden Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir makes one want to stand up and take notice. The wine's deep and mysterious flavors—wild red and black fruits, dried leather and earth—make it a wine sumptuous with grilled lamb with savory herbs. Drinks nicely now. (Best Served: 2016-2026) (Tasted: August 22, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Offering different shades of plum and cherry flavors, this is floral and spicy, picking up a smoky, toasty nuance on the aftertaste that puts the inherent elegance here on full display.
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Mount Eden Vineyards is a small historic wine estate perched at 2000 feet overlooking Silicon Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountain Appellation, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. Founded in 1945, it is recognized as one of the original “boutique” California winery properties, focusing on small lots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Mount Eden’s lineage of estate bottled Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is the longest in California. Planted in austere, infertile Franciscan shale on a cool, exposed mountaintop, these low-yielding estate vineyards have consistently produced world-class wines for over a half-century. In 2007 Mount Eden acquired an additional 55 acre wine estate in the Saratoga foothills, which was christened Domaine Eden.
Mount Eden Vineyards also produces non-estate Chardonnays from the central coast, primarily Edna Valley. They have great success making Chardonnay from the Wolff Vineyard and are continually recognized as making outstanding wines from that region.
Since 1981 Jeffrey Patterson has guided the winemaking and grape growing at Mount Eden. His emphasis is on wine growing rather than winemaking; and an obsession with gentleness and naturalness in the handling of the grapes and wines is his ongoing passion.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A rugged and topographically diverse cool-climate appellation with a rich history, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA stretches from Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, to the northern border of Monterey County. Elevations range from 800 feet to upwards of 3,000 and microclimates vary substantially depending on which side of the mountains the vineyards lie; cool ocean winds and fog play an important role here. This can be a challenging region in which to grow grapes, but it is well worth the effort. Santa Cruz Mountains wines are noted for balanced acidity levels, often showing great aging potential. Wine has been made here since the 1800s, most notably from the legendary Ridge Vineyards, whose Monte Bello vineyard garners international admiration.
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the stars of this region, while Merlot and Zinfandel also perform quite well. Organic and sustainable vineyard practices are becoming increasingly common.