Winemaker Notes
The 2019 UV Pinot Noir offers a detailed bouquet of warm blackberries, strawberry powder, and kirsch with wafts of orange tea and savory nuances. The wine moves across the palate with authority and ease, framed by notes pomegranate reduction and clay soils. Ripe, velvety tannins integrate seamlessly with a concentrated core of exquisite red fruit, leading to a long and succulent finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plump, ripe dark fruit and berries, baking spice and dried herbs on the nose. Full-bodied with fine, structured tannins. Blackberries and black licorice wash over the palate with earth and savory herbs. Well-crafted acidity keeps the intensity steady through the long, warming finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep ruby-purple colored, the nose is wonderfully perfumed, featuring notes of red roses, underbrush, wild sage and menthol over a core of pomegranate, black raspberries and wild strawberries. The palate is softly textured and beautifully balanced with full-bodied, generous fruit and just enough freshness, finishing long with a red berry lift.
Rating: 96+
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.