Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This fascinating, wild-yeast wine is on the lighter, rustier side of the color spectrum. It smells exotic and complex, like oolong tea, dried mushrooms and forest floor. Flavors are plummy yet savory, while firm tannins and medium body add good structure. The emphasis is on finesse and grape-driven personality, as the wine uses no new oak barrels and 30% whole-cluster fermentation. Editors' Choice.
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.”
Essentially a northern extension of the Sonoma Coast AVA but part of Mendocino County, Mendocino Ridge is one of the rare appellations defined by elevation only. The Mendocino Ridge AVA is reserved only for vineyards at or above 1,200 feet between the Anderson Valley and Pacific Ocean.