Winemaker Notes
Moderately dark color with a bright red rim (bodes well for aging). Aromas of cherry and red berry with hints of cool climate cranberry framed in wisps of smoky peat hearth fire. Flavors are bright, with firm acid structure supporting the same fruit tones perceptible in the aroma—very persistent! Finish lingers with long, late acid backbone carrying the red berry late into the aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red wines begin with the 2006 Pinot Noir Litoral Vineyard. Medium ruby-colored, it shows off an enticing bouquet of smoke, mocha, black cherry, and black raspberry. On the palate it has superb depth and grip, complexity, a velvety texture, and an impeccable balance that suggests a long life for this first-class Pinot.
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.”
Its rolling, coastal hills encouraged great investment in the 1990s from those in search of a cooler grape growing environment compared to those found in Chile’s Central Valley. All of the vineyards of the San Antonio Valley, which runs north to south and parallel to the coast, experience the cooling effect of the ocean and are made of vine-loving clay and granitic soils. While Sauvignon Blanc put this valley on the Chilean wine map, high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are emerging and some producers are starting to experiment with sparkling wine.