Winemaker Notes
Packed within its medium ruby core, notes of black cherry, spiced plum, and sandalwood burst from the glass. As this Pinot Noir coats the palate, red berries and subtle notes of spicy oak pair harmoniously with structured tannin and bright acidity to create a multidimensional and mouthwatering experience.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This appellation blend by Bibiana Gonzalez Rave is a tremendously complex and simply delicious wine for a fair price. Aromas of cinnamon, sumac and raspberry paste are juicy yet dark and serious on the nose. There’s a firm grip to the sip that frames the rich black raspberry core, with f lavors of thyme, sage and cracked pepper adding more nuance.
Editors' Choice -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Cattleya Alma de Cattleya is bright and persistent. TASTING NOTES: This wine excels with aromas and flavors of ripe berries, aromatic floral, slight rusticity, and light oaky notes. Enjoy it with grilled salmon fillets. (Tasted: May 8, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir has a pale ruby color and bright scents of sour cherry, plum and cranberry with nuances of tobacco leaves, citrus peel and graphite. The light-bodied palate features generous, crunchy red fruit, softly chalky tannins, juicy acidity and a long, earth-laced finish.
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.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.