Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dried strawberry and cedar with sandalwood on the nose. White pepper as well. Full body, round and rich yet austere at the finish. Love quality of tannins . Juicy and savory. Excellent intensity. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The tightest of the three Pinot Noirs, was the 2015 Pinot Noir UV-SL. This Pinot Noir, made from equal parts Calera and a Vosne-Romanée clone, shows terrific fruit intensity, slightly higher acids and more tannin in a more backward style. It certainly needs time to fully unleash its considerable personality, and in a way, it seemed to suffer in comparison with its two more flamboyant siblings. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2032.
Rating: 93+ -
Wine Spectator
Supple red plum and black cherry flavors are elegant and graceful, backed by fine-grained, tea-laced tannins that impart traction. Drink now through 2025.
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.