Anthill Farms Hawk Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018
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Robert
Parker
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There is so much detail in the aromas from Hawk Hill. All types of red fruit, rose petal, tea leaf, citrus peel, and flint lift readily from the glass. This site, located at the end of the coastal opening coming from Bodega, grows remarkable fruit that gracefully transitions into a refined and elegant wine. With air, there is a vertical and persistent impact on the palate that prophesizes this wine’s potential for longevity
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Wine Enthusiast
From the cool climes of Freestone, just miles from the Pacific Ocean, this vineyard-designate captures all the feral, crisp and complex aspects of site and variety in the right hands. Carbonic, with euphoric red raspberry and strawberry flavors, it is textured, savory and endlessly bright.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Hawk Hill Vineyard is the second iteration of this single-vineyard cuvée, which was made with 25% new French and Austrian oak and 50% whole clusters. Medium ruby-purple, it offers gorgeous aromas of charcuterie, rhubarb, blackberries and aniseed with loads of earthy accents in the undercurrent and top notes of potpourri. The palate is medium-bodied and über satiny with slowly blossoming flavor layers. It walks a beautiful line between concentration of flavor and a light-footed frame, and it finishes very long with addicting juiciness and nuance. Wow!
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2021-
Robert
Parker
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Wine &
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Anthill Farms is an exciting project that focuses on producing exceptional Pinot Noir from a broad range of North Coast vineyards. The properties are managed with intensive and meticulous farming practices, with minimal ecological impact. As for winemaking, there are two unchanging goals: to make wines that express the growing site and the characteristics of the vintage above all else, and to make wines that, simply put, taste good. These goals require gentle handling from crushing to bottling, judicious use of oak, and, perhaps most importantly, leaving the wine alone as much as possible. “We didn’t know whether the name was really great or really dumb,” admits Anthill Farms Winery partner Webster Marquez. “It came about because we’re all winemakers and people would see us all scrambling around trying to grab the same hose at once; they said it was like watching a bunch of ants.” This trio of ants—Marquez, Anthony Filiberti and David Low—met while working at Sonoma’s Williams Selyem. Says Marquez, “We realized that we have the same approach: using Pinot Noir—the most ‘transparent’ grape in the world—to communicate the way vineyards from cooler areas create distinctive wines.” The partners themselves farm many of the small plots where they buy their grapes, and the results of this labor of love are remarkably seductive wines that combine concentration and finesse. Now that the company has grown from producing 200 cases in 2004 to 1,800 this year, the trio’s work is becoming ever more demanding. Notes Marquez, “It’s a good thing we’re young and don’t need much sleep.” –Food & Wine Magazine’s “Most Promising New Winery” 2009
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.