Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
My favorite in the lineup, the 2012 Pinot Noir 459 offers incredible notes of rose petal, freshly snipped flowers, underbrush and black cherry fruit. More elegant and seamless that the other releases, with medium-bodied richness, thrilling purity of fruit and a terrific finish, this is an awesome bottle of Pinot Noir from the team at Brewer-Clifton. Enjoy bottles anytime over the coming 7-8 years, although I suspect it will evolve nicely for longer given its overall balance and harmony.
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Wine Spectator
Refined and restrained, this is fairly tight and trim, with understated plum, blackberry and raspberry notes, ending with red candy and candied apple spiciness. Drink now through 2023.
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.