Winemaker Notes
A brilliant ruby color with lifted, inviting aromas of cherry, dried roses, cardamom and wild herbs transfer to the palate. Our blend of Sonoma Coast sites has come together beautifully in this mid-weight, textural wine with tons of energy keeping it fresh and juicy. The wine turns gorgeously floral and spicy with air.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is a blend of wine from the Anthill Farms single-vineyard cuvées, made with about 15% to 20% new French and Austrian oak and 40% whole clusters. Medium ruby-purple, it has pure scents of cranberries, blackberries, black tea leaves, fragrant earth and garrigue. In the mouth, it's concentrated but light on its feet with a silky texture, floral fruits, seamless freshness and a long finish.
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Wine & Spirits
The Anthill team makes several single-vineyard wines from sites in the coastal Sebastopol Hills and in Annapolis, on Sonoma’s far north coast. This bottling is a blend of fruit from those sites, and while it may be less distinctive than the solo bottlings, it doesn’t feel like a lesser selection. The brightness of the wine evokes the Pacific wind, kicking the fruit’s sunny glow into high-toned strawberry, mint and Bing cherry flavors while the tannins act like crystals refracting the bright fruit.
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.