Winemaker Notes
Vegan
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Made from equal parts 459 and 37 clones, the 2017 Pinot Noir Machado has a complex bouquet of blackberries, caramelized orange peel, spice, and earth. It's a beautiful, elegant wine, with medium to full-bodied richness, fine tannins, and a great finish. This is another complex, silky, incredibly compelling wine from this team.
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Wine Enthusiast
Buoyant aromas of Bing cherry and raspberry sorbet are layered with lavender and rose buds on the elegant, approachable nose of this single-vineyard bottling. The palate is crisp in an underripe cherry flavor, with a taut texture and accents of mace and star anise on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with 100% whole cluster, the 2017 Pinot Noir Machado has a pale to medium ruby color and gives up warm cranberry, black cherry, red and black currants and licorice with hints of peppercorn, woodsmoke, pipe tobacco, dried rose petals and garrigue. The silky, light to medium-bodied palate fleshes out in the mouth with spicy fruits supported by firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and layered. Give this more time in bottle.
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Wine Spectator
Dark plum and mulberry flavors dominate this ripe, brambly style. Notes of chocolate nibs and loam show midpalate, with a finish that features tea and mocha accents.
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.