Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Full and juicy palate with soft and savory character. Plenty of dried fruit and a long and flavorful finish. Needs a year or two to come together. Try in 2019.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby colored, the 2014 Pinot Noir is scented of red currents, warm cranberries and pomegranate with hints of underbrush and moss-covered bark. The medium-bodied palate provides mouth-filling red berry and earthy flavors with satiny tannins and a lively acid backbone to support, finishing long.
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Wine Enthusiast
Green Valley vineyards figure prominently in this appellation wine, providing delicate, layered acidity and crisp, savory, succulent fruit. Cranberry, cherry and black tea flavors ripple through its bright texture, accented with clove, cola and cedar.
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.