Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Sun Chase Vineyard Pinot Noir springs from the glass offering bing cherry, pomegranate, black raspberry, dried Provencal herbs, lavender and loamy rock. The mid-palate supports a dynamic chorus of savory notes, plush red and dark fruits, and a beam of acidity to support a long seamless finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Also from the Sonoma Coast, the 2017 Pinot Noir Sun Chase Vineyard offers classic ripe strawberry and red currant fruits as well as notes of spicy herbs, underbrush, and earth. Medium to full-bodied, rich, nicely textured, and balanced, it’s going to benefit from a year or two of bottle age and drink nicely for a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This comes from clones 777, 667, 114 and 828. The 2017 Pinot Noir Sun Chase Vineyard was made with 30% whole cluster and was aged 18 months in 100% Burgundian barrels, 40% new. Medium to deep ruby-purple in color, it springs from the glass with vivacious Morello cherries, warm cranberries and black raspberries notes with touches of garrigue, lavender, Provence herbs and tilled soil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate features a lovely savoriness, framed by fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and earthy.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.