Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2004 Pinot Noir Selleck Vineyard possesses a deep, dark garnet/ruby color in addition to dense, forest floor aromas reminiscent of a DRC Richebourg or Grand Echezeaux. Extraordinarily complex notes of truffles, berries, and damp forest are both enticing and profound. This full-bodied, rich, long, compelling Pinot Noir can be drunk now, but it will be even better with 2-4 years of bottle age. It should keep for 12-15 years. It is stunning stuff!
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.”
Taking advantage of the cool Pacific breezes that arrive via gaps between the Gabilan Range and the Santa Lucia Mountains, San Benito AVA is a great Central coast source for cool climate whites and Pinot noir.