Winemaker Notes
Dark ruby color. The tiny, thick-skinned berries and clusters held up incredibly well in the fermenters, contributing to the intensity of the perfume — deeply floral with cherry and briary red fruit, tea leaf, orange peel and warm soil. Anthill Farms employed a light touch with extraction of this concentrated fruit, leading to an elegance in the extraction with sappy, pure, and energetic flavors. The textures come in waves across the mid-palate while the lengthy finish with subtle, integrated tannins and uplifting acidity is where we fully recognize the fruit's provenance. Drink over the next dozen years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Harmony Lane Vineyard is a touch reticent from its recent bottling and takes time to reveal scents of cranberry and blueberry and nuances of forest floor and dried lavender. Medium-bodied with polished tannins and energetic acidity, the palate boasts powerful, concentrated fruit and a very long, latent finish.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.