St. Innocent Momtazi Pinot Noir 2015
-
Enthusiast
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Braised meats, roasts, mushroom or dishes with eastern spices match well with this solidly structure Pinot noir. It will benefit from decanting 1-2 hours before serving and can be aged up to 12 years.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
The subtle flavors of the fruit from this biodynamically farmed vineyard sneak up on you, and reward your close attention. Light cherry fruit is wrapped in delicate details of herbal tea, dried leaf and clean earth. The overall balance is exceptional. A little extra breathing time helps to open it up, and it should age nicely for at least another half decade.
Other Vintages
2019-
Spirits
Wine & -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine
-
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine -
Suckling
James
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
St. Innocent produces small lot, handmade wines: seven single vineyard Pinot noirs and a blended Pinot noir called the Villages Cuvée, two Chardonnay from Dijon clone plantings, two Pinot gris, and a Pinot blanc.
The philosophy behind the winemaking at St Innocent is that the function of wine is to complement and extend the pleasure of a meal. The characteristics of a wine should enhance different food and flavor combinations - this interaction amplifies the pleasure of a meal. To this end, St. Innocent wines tend toward higher acid levels, and more diverse and balanced flavors.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Stretching southwest from the city of McMinnville, the AVA with the same name covers about 40,000 acres across 20 miles until it meets the Van Duzer Corridor. This corridor is the only break in the Coast Range whose gap allows the cool Pacific Ocean air to flow eastward into the Willamette Valley.
The Pacific's moderating winds hit McMinnville’s south and southeast facing slopes where cool-climate varieties—namely Pinot noir and Pinot blanc thrive on ridges at between 200 to 1,000 feet in elevation.
Soils here are primarily uplifted marine sedimentary loam and silt, with alluvial formations; McMinnville receives less rainfall than its neighbors to the east because it is situated in the rain shadow of the Coast Range.