Three Sticks Price Family Estates Pinot Noir 2019
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#28 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2021
Price Family Estates Pinot Noir hails from some of the most renowned vineyard sites in Sonoma County. Each property is owned by Three Sticks’ proprietor, Bill Price. Creating a blend of each of the estate vineyards from across Sonoma County is always some of the more cerebral processes in blending each year. The core of the wine comes from the Walala Vineyard, a 17-acre site in the middle of 19,000 acres of redwoods in the far northwestern part of Sonoma County. This year, the blend is 40% Walala, 25% Durell, 15% One Sky, 15% William James, and the balance split between Gap’s Crown and Alana. These properties are distinctly diverse but all share a cool climate, dictated by the Pacific Ocean winds and fog. Each site brings unique characteristics and depth to this bold pinot noir, a highlight of their portfolio that encompasses the finest of the Sonoma Coast appellation.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Powerful and rich-tasting, with concentrated dark berry and fruit flavors that are backed by fresh acidity and tannins. Minerally midpalate, with well-knit spiciness and forest floor notes lingering on the suave finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The ruby/purple-hued 2019 Pinot Noir Price Family Estates is another Sonoma Coast release that’s loaded with bright berry and framboise fruit-like characteristics as well as a fresh, elegant, still tight and focused style on the palate. It picks up more sassafras and floral notes with time in the glass and opens up nicely, so it should have a good 7-8 years of prime drinking.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Three Sticks Price Family Estates Pinot Noir is elegant and refined. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers alluring aromas and flavors of pomegranate and floral notes. Enjoy its delightful nuances with grilled salmon. (Tasted: November 18, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir Price Family Estates, medium ruby-purple in color, has open scents of cranberry sauce, rhubarb and baked strawberries with notes of dark spices and earth. The palate is light-bodied, soft and juicy with plush red berry fruit and a spicy finish.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Rich, black cherry fruit immediately assumes center stage in this wine’s full, demonstrably ripe aromas and fairly substantial flavors, and it is joined by a good measure of creamy oak and elements of mildly earthy spice. Supple to start then showing an edge of tannic astringency in the latter going, it is just grippy enough at the finish to argue for a few more years in the cellar but has the juicy fullness to serve capably with richer dishes if poured in the shorter term.
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Wine &
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Three Sticks Wines is a boutique, family-owned winery recognized for pinot noir and chardonnay. Proprietor Bill Price III (nicknamed “Billy Three Sticks”) owns six Grand Cru level estate vineyards in Sonoma County, including three Heritage vineyards–Durell, Gap’s Crown, and Walala and three Monopole vineyards–One Sky, Alana, and William James. An intimate relationship with each property shines through in each of the Three Sticks wines, reflecting a keen understanding of how working with great vineyards, along with a meticulous winemaking style, produces inspiring results.
The Vallejo-Castenada Adobe (built in 1842) was built by Captain Salvador Vallejo, brother of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the Commandante Generale of the northern territory of Mexico (modern day Sonoma). The Prices purchased the property in 2012 and embarked on a two-year preservation project. The Three Sticks team worked with Sonoma historians and the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation to restore and protect the fabric of the property. They commissioned San Francisco-based designer Ken Fulk and his team to design the ambience of the Adobe, as it is known locally. The historic landmark in downtown Sonoma is now home to the hospitality of Three Sticks.
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.