Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Vinous
The 2021 Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast) is a huge overachiever. Bright, punchy and super-expressive, the 2021 offers up boisterous red/purplish fruit. Lavender, rose petal, spice and mint are all dialed up in this heady, explosive Pinot. Readers will have a very hard time finding a Pinot with this much quality for the money. All of the fruit is estate. I am not sure I have ever tasted a California Pinot this good for $40 a bottle.
-
James Suckling
This is so bright and fruity, with vivid cherry, hibiscus and lime. Medium to full body. Tangy. Bitter orange at the end. Drink or hold.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir is made from 100% estate fruit this year. Bottled under screw cap, it takes a minute or two to reveal cranberry sauce, baked rhubarb, red cherries and mint with touches of mushroom and mossy bark. The light-bodied palate is chalky and refreshing with concentrated, earthy fruit, and it has a satisfying finish that draws you in for another sip.
-
Decanter
A surprising nose of cocoa and mocha waft from the glass, along with hints of cinnamon spice. Silky tannins with a bit of an artificial blackberry and blue berry fruit leather component. It's an introduction to the brand, but it doesn’t go much deeper than what we’re tasting right now.
-
Wine Spectator
Juicy, ripe and direct, with a burst of crushed cherry and plum paste flavors lined with a light anise streak. Drink now. 14,328 cases made.
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.