Anthony & Dominic Pinot Noir 2017
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Anthony's grandfather, Anthony Sr., started his wine career in 1940, selling gallon jugs of his father’s homemade red wine from a pushcart in their Brooklyn neighborhood. Twenty-three years later he moved the family to California, just in time for the 1963 harvest. He bought a winery about 40 miles from San Francisco where his sons learned to make wine.
His family will always remember Sunday night dinners at the winery home, where he passed along the family history, values and winemaking standards. He also handed down two names that appear throughout our family tree: Anthony & Dominic. Anthony & Dominic's wines, including this new North Coast Chardonnay, are a tribute to the family members that carried their names before us.
The North Coast Chardonnay has complex citrus fruit flavors and aromas with a slight hint of oak highlight this crisp, clean release.
The North Coast Pinot Noir is the first Pinot Noir in five generations to carry their family’s names. The flavor profile is fruit driven with berry and spice accents, a medium body, soft tannins and a satisfying 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.”
Reaching up California's coastline and into its valleys north of San Francisco, the North Coast AVA includes six counties: Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake. While Napa and Sonoma enjoy most of the glory, the rest produce no shortage of quality wines in an intriguing and diverse range of styles.
Climbing up the state's rugged coastline, the chilly Marin County, just above the City and most of Sonoma County, as well as Mendocino County on the far north end of the North Coast successfully grow cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and in some spots, Riesling. Inland Lake County, on the other hand, is considerably warmer, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc produce some impressive wines with affordable price tags.