Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Pinot Noir UV Vineyard, another wine made from the Calera clone of Pinot Noir, and named after the superb viticultural manager Ulises Valdez, has a deep ruby/purple-tinged color and an exceptional nose of sweet raspberry, pomegranate, and currants intermixed with some spring flowers, underbrush, and forest floor notes. The wine has dazzling stuffing, expansive texture, sensational purity, and well-integrated acidity and tannin. It is a stunningly complex, grand cru Pinot Noir that should drink nicely for 10-15 or more years.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth and richly flavored, with a mix of savory dark berry, blackberry, herb, mineral and sage flavors that are fairly explosive on the palate, yet somehow this remains elegant, balanced and very stylish. Ends with a long, lingering finish. Drink now through 2013
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.