Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is plush and tasty, with lots of fresh, ripe fruit flavors verging on sweet, but it also has great acidity and appetizing tannins to rein in all that flavor and achieve balance. The flavors resemble raspberry, ripe red cherry and a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s medium to full bodied, dry and finishes with a nice tartness.
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.