Winemaker Notes
A beautiful, shimmering dark ruby profile from rim to core, the 2018 Cattleya Cuveé Number One Pinot Noir showcases the best the Russian River Valley has to offer. The epitome of purity, this wine bursts from the glass aromatically with notes of ripe raspberry, black cherry, and strawberry cream. A blanket of soft, velvety tannin envelops juicy flavors of red currant, crushed strawberries, and blackberry crisp. The cool growing climate from which this cuvée is born, provides a backbone of age-worthy acidity that suggests patience in opening your next bottle will be greatly rewarded.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
I was able to taste two Pinot Noirs from Bibiana. Coming from the Russian River and first made in 2014, the 2018 Pinot Noir Cuvee Number One comes from a mix of the Pommard, 115, and 114 clones and was completely destemmed and aged in 30% new French oak. Its vivid ruby/purple hue is followed by a killer bouquet of ripe strawberries, raspberries, candied violets, orange peel, and sweet spices. This carries to a medium to full-bodied Pinot Noir that has loads of fruit and texture, yet shines for its elegance, silky tannins, and terrific balance. It has plenty of Russian River fruit yet is still an elegant, cool-climate styled effort.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Very deep and energetically fruity with the combination of beauty, balance and richness that marks the top bottlings of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Cattleya’s Cuvée Number One is both open and very inviting but has the obvious reserve to grow for years. It is moderately full in body with the classic, near-velvety feel that marks the best of its breed, and, at every stop, it shows a marvelous sense of careful crafting and seamless integration of its manifold parts. It ultimately may not reach quite the same heights as its slightly deeper, equally wellmade Belly of the Whale companion, yet it is an enthusiastically recommended Pinot that, while nothing short of irresistible now, will only get better with time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Cuvée Number One offers gregarious scents of cranberry jelly, red cherry jam and baked rhubarb with notions of licorice, exotic spices, tangerine peel and dried flowers. Medium-bodied, it's bright, lifted and layered with loads of spicy, amaro-like accents in a grainy, fresh frame and ending with a long, spicy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Silky aromas of black cherry, licorice and allspice carry the nose of this bottling. Polished but chalky tannins frame flavors of lush baked cherry and lavish rose water, proving luxurious on the palate.
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.”
Situated on the foggier and colder western edge of the Russian River Valley, almost abutting the Sonoma Coast appellation, Green Valley is one of California’s most reputable Chardonnay and Pinot noir producing regions. It is also a wonderful source of sparkling wines made from these varieties.
Goldridge soils abound throughout the Green Valley appellation. This fine, dark, sandy loam and fractured sandstone is derived from the remains of ancient inland seabeds dating back three to five million years. It is valuable for high quality grape growing because of its excellent drainage and low fertility.