Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Fresh, clean and lively, with firm, vibrant raspberry, blueberry and blackberry fruit that has a nice floral and anise edge, gaining depth, richness and complexity on the long, full-bodied finish. Ends with a great minerality.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The string of brilliant wines from Bill Hunter continues with his 2007 Pinot Noir Freestone Station. A lush, sexy, seductive wine, it exhibits abundant notes of raspberries, wild strawberries, exotic flowers, and Chinese black tea in its aromatic, upfront personality. Broad, full-bodied, plush, and the most lush, succulent of these Pinots, it is irresistible at this stage of its evolution.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.