Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Firm and substantial on the palate, this is a complex Pinot, the red cherry fruit juicy and inviting and the wine layered in Chinese five-spice. Light in texture and weight the wine still offers a sense of place and gravitas.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From multiple vineyards, the 2012 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast reveals crunchy black raspberry and blackberry fruit intermixed with foresty notes. This medium-bodied, pure, effusively fruity Pinot has some serious density and structure behind the flesh, and can be enjoyed over the next 8-9 years.
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Wine Spectator
Delicate and silky, with subtle dried herb, caraway seed and sour cherry flavors. Presents fine-grained tannins along a minerally edge that slowly gains traction. Drink now through 2022.
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.