Pahlmeyer Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2012
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The dense ruby/purple-tinged 2012 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast reveals copious notes of brambleberries and mountain berries, forest floor, spring flowers and spice. Medium to full-bodied with silky tannins as well as a fleshy, succulent texture, good purity, and the oak pushed to the background, it should drink beautifully for 10-12 years. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, it was sourced from the Halberg and Wayfarer vineyards.
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Wine Spectator
A strong, rich mocha-woody frame wraps around the extracted dark berry flavors in this version, showing some tannic muscle. Within that mix is a seam of elegance and finesse that should only become more prominent with time. Drink now through 2023.
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Pahlmeyer was founded in 1986, by a desire to be great by its eponymous creator Jayson Pahlmeyer. With a dream to create a California Mouton, Jayson and his partners spared no resource to make this dream a reality. Whether it was finding the perfect piece of land high atop Napa Valley’s Atlas Peak or covertly smuggling in Bordeaux cuttings, all pieces of Pahlmeyer’s history have led to its place as one of the top brand names from Napa Valley. From the very beginning, Pahlmeyer has been dedicated to crafting fine wines from the best fruit sources possible. In California, this means high elevation mountain sites, where the grapes are afforded more sunlight, cooler temperatures, and less fertile soils, which together create ideal conditions. Pahlmeyer sources the majority of their fruit from four key locations: Pahlmeyer Estate (Atlas Peak), Stagecoach (Atlas Peak / Pritchard Hill), Rancho Chimiles, and Antica.
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.