Stephen Vincent Pinot Noir 2012
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This would be an excellent accompaniment to lamb chops with a rosemary marinade, baked salmon in a lemon and butter sauce, or my favorite pairing, duck confit on a bed of wild mushroom risotto.
Born out of friendship, a passion for wine, and a common love of Northern California.
Stephen Vincent was conceived in the infancy of California’s wine industry and Sonoma County’s rise to stardom. Founded by La Crema winemaker, Robert Goyette, Robert Mondavi executive and brand namesake, Stephen Vincent Situm, and prominent vineyard owner, Hossein Namdar in 2001, these three friends found rapid success with their joint venture Stephen Vincent.
Through the burgeoning community of growers and producers, they worked with Dennis Carroll (owner-founder of Wine Hooligans) at his Sonoma County bottling facility. Dennis’s mission of bringing artisan wines made by passionate winemakers to market found a perfect match with Stephen Vincent and its founders—once again bringing friends together through the brand.
2020 marks a fresh start for Stephen Vincent wines with the release of their North Coast line-up. Sourcing from vineyards in Lake, Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma Counties—including premium fruit from Napa Valley, the Russian River Valley, and Carneros.
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.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.