St. Innocent Momtazi Hill Pinot Noir (375ML half-bottle) 2013
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Wine &
Spirits -
Wine
Spectator -
James
Suckling
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Serve with braised meats, stews, sausages, mushroom dishes, or cassoulet - essentially the umami foods. It can be enjoyed in its youth after decanting for two hours or more and will develop over a decade.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Mark Vlossak leases eight acres of this biodynamically farmed vineyard in the McMinnville AVA. A faint cola spice adorns its dark fruit, the flavors as lifted as they are saturated. The fruit brightens up in the glass with air, leaving an impression of charm and lightness.
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Wine Spectator
Light, open-textured and distinctive, with damson plum and floral aromas and flavors, lingering on the supple finish. Drink now through 2020.
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James Suckling
Very pretty aromas of dark berries and flowers follow through to a medium body, firm and silky tannins and a fresh and clean finish.
Other Vintages
2014-
Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator
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.