Anthill Farms Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2018
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Robert
Parker -
Wine &
Spirits
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Winemaker Notes
A brilliant ruby color with lifted, inviting aromas of cherry, dried roses, cardamom and wild herbs transfer to the palate. Our blend of Sonoma Coast sites has come together beautifully in this mid-weight, textural wine with tons of energy keeping it fresh and juicy. The wine turns gorgeously floral and spicy with air.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is a blend of wine from the Anthill Farms single-vineyard cuvées, made with about 15% to 20% new French and Austrian oak and 40% whole clusters. Medium ruby-purple, it has pure scents of cranberries, blackberries, black tea leaves, fragrant earth and garrigue. In the mouth, it's concentrated but light on its feet with a silky texture, floral fruits, seamless freshness and a long finish.
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Wine & Spirits
The Anthill team makes several single-vineyard wines from sites in the coastal Sebastopol Hills and in Annapolis, on Sonoma’s far north coast. This bottling is a blend of fruit from those sites, and while it may be less distinctive than the solo bottlings, it doesn’t feel like a lesser selection. The brightness of the wine evokes the Pacific wind, kicking the fruit’s sunny glow into high-toned strawberry, mint and Bing cherry flavors while the tannins act like crystals refracting the bright fruit.
Other Vintages
2021-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
Anthill Farms is an exciting project that focuses on producing exceptional Pinot Noir from a broad range of North Coast vineyards. The properties are managed with intensive and meticulous farming practices, with minimal ecological impact. As for winemaking, there are two unchanging goals: to make wines that express the growing site and the characteristics of the vintage above all else, and to make wines that, simply put, taste good. These goals require gentle handling from crushing to bottling, judicious use of oak, and, perhaps most importantly, leaving the wine alone as much as possible. “We didn’t know whether the name was really great or really dumb,” admits Anthill Farms Winery partner Webster Marquez. “It came about because we’re all winemakers and people would see us all scrambling around trying to grab the same hose at once; they said it was like watching a bunch of ants.” This trio of ants—Marquez, Anthony Filiberti and David Low—met while working at Sonoma’s Williams Selyem. Says Marquez, “We realized that we have the same approach: using Pinot Noir—the most ‘transparent’ grape in the world—to communicate the way vineyards from cooler areas create distinctive wines.” The partners themselves farm many of the small plots where they buy their grapes, and the results of this labor of love are remarkably seductive wines that combine concentration and finesse. Now that the company has grown from producing 200 cases in 2004 to 1,800 this year, the trio’s work is becoming ever more demanding. Notes Marquez, “It’s a good thing we’re young and don’t need much sleep.” –Food & Wine Magazine’s “Most Promising New Winery” 2009
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.