Winemaker Notes
Dark Plum in color with ruby red highlights. On the nose, luscious notes of raspberry swirl along side dark plum notes accompanied by hints of rosemary and sage. Rich and well balanced with bright blackberry, Bing cherry, dark chocolate and a hint of caramel on the palate. This wine is sure to please with its rounded mouth-feel, and long, smooth, velvety finish.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Dark and dense, with a perfume of clove and black cherry, this impressive wine offers innate depth. Winemaker Joe Wagner's idea of sourcing from three appellationsRussian River Valley (45%), Santa Lucia Highlands (26%), and Santa Maria Valley (29%) proved to be a successful endeavor, yielding a wine of complex flavor, aromatics, and texture. Brownsugared beet, dark chocolate, black plum, and heather are well integrated within the downpillow mouthfeel and determined structure. It's an exciting, heady red that holds its power in check.
Internationally recognized for gorgeous, pure fruit combined with great elegance, California Pinot noir thrives among the state’s cooler, coastal zones. Characterized by eclectic flavors and aromas of strawberry, black cherry, plum and potpourri with notes of forest floor, mushroom or black tea, the best California Pinot noir boast a supple texture and good acidity, giving them the ability to improve with age.
Credited with the beginning of Pinot noir’s glory in California, two growers, Joe Rochioli and Joseph Swan in the late 1960s independently planted Pinot noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Today Sonoma County remains the leading producer of Pinot noir in the state, and Pinot noir is the leading red grape in the county, achieving its highest potential, in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Other coastal appellations where Pinot noir flourishes include Carneros, Anderson Valley and most of the Central Coast.