Raeburn Pinot Noir 2020
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Winemaker Notes
Brilliant crimson in color, Raeburn Russian River Valley Pinot Noir leads with pleasing aromas of baking spice and vanilla. The palate is marked with stunning fruit flavors of lush wild blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry with undertones of roasted hazelnut. The finish is graceful and sophisticated.
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Despite the wildfires in Northern California that impacted this vintage, the Raeburn winemaking team was able to deliver a fresh and fruity red. Aged 11 months in (25% new) French oak, it begins with aromas of raspberry and rose petal. Delicate flavors of salted strawberry usher in a silky mouthfeel as well as an accent of herbes de Provence. Feather-light on the palate, with intricate, lacy notes of dried flowers and white pepper preceding a finish of oak and hazelnut.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Raeburn Pinot Noir is stylish and fresh on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine delivers bright red fruit aromas and flavors. Enjoy it with grilled salmon fillets. (Tasted: September 1, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Raeburn Winery crafts complex, elegant wines dedicated to founder Derek Benham’s mother, Phyllis, and independently minded spirits like her. A lifelong lover of nature, Phyllis has a deep respect for the complexity and spectacular beauty of the environment, and she lives fearlessly within it. Like the birds she adores, she mastered flight early in life as a pilot at age 14. She completed numerous solo expeditions at the Alaskan frontier to study birds in the wild. Phyllis instilled her love of nature and spirit of independence in her son Derek and inspired by her, he founded Raeburn in 2014. The name Raeburn is Old English for “the river where one drinks” – a salute to free-thinking adventurers, like Phyllis, who dare to venture off the beaten track and flourish there.
Raeburn wines are complex and elegant wines. Made in a California certified sustainably winery, they are committed to protect and conserve the wilderness.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.