Winemaker Notes
Aromatic and exotic with smoked herbs, juvenile fresh red fruits, fennel, and wet crushed stones; dense and long. Aged 34 months in larger French containers of various ages after being fermented open to by its native yeasts. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2001 Pandora (60% Grenache and 40% Syrah) reveals minerality, kirsch liqueur, and the red as well as black fruit spectrum in a beautifully textured, medium to full-bodied, open-knit style. Already revealing evolved notes of balsam wood, spice box, licorice, and garrigue.
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Wine Spectator
A dark, rich, potent young wine, with packed exotic wild berry, blackberry, leather, beef and white pepper, with a touch of tar and spice, finishing with a wave of flavor accented by a melted chocolate aftertaste. Grenache and Syrah.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.