Cobb Wines Coastlands Vineyard Diane Cobb Pinot Noir 2012
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Robert
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Product Details
Varietal
Region
Producer
Vintage
2012
Size
750ML
ABV
14.1%
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Named for winemaker Ross Cobb's late mother, who more than 20 years ago planted the Coastlands Vineyards' dry-farmed vines—some of the oldest in the region—this exquisitely distinctive wine celebrates all that is extreme and remarkable about the marriage of site, style and variety. Offering bay laurel in abundance, it has plenty of body to remain vibrant and complex, marked entirely in forest floor and heady allspice, with a nuance of cherry and white pepper on the finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Ross Cobb’s mother, Diane, planted this block at the top of the estate in 1989, mostly to figure out what would work on the property. It’s a complex mix of genetic material—over 20 pinot noir selections grown on their own roots. It was meant to serve as a nursery block, but turned out to make fascinating wine in its own right. This 2012 feels herbal and salty at first, its stemmy scents muting the fruit expression (40 percent was fermented as whole bunches). But everything engages as the wine takes on air, its heady aromas—cardamom, manzanita bark, green tea and apple skin—filling every nook and cranny of the structure with coastal complexity, the fruit rich, supple and tangy at the same time, with an exhilarating length.
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Decanter
A world apart from the 2011, and the winery’s most popular release, the 2012 Diane Cobb Pinot Noir spent 22 months in French oak, 40% new, and produced 225 cases. Bounding out of the glass is an ever-evolving nose of raspberry, kirsch, and kumquat, while black cherries and cardamom frame the palate and finish. It has the highest ABV of all Cobb's wines at 14.1%, but it is integrated nicely. A great introduction to this restrained winemaking style for drinkers accustomed to riper California Pinot Noir. Drinking Window 2019 - 2030
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Diane Cobb Coastlands Vineyard still has incredible fruit on the nose with loads of berry and rhubarb accented by dried flowers, tea and tobacco leaves. The medium-bodied palate is surprisingly concentrated and fresh, with a firm frame and long, flavor-packed finish. This is holding up beautifully and should drink well over the next 5-7 years.
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In 2001, two generations of the Cobb family came together to explore a shared passion for pinot noir with the founding of Cobb Wines. Focused exclusively on crafting single-vineyard, Sonoma Coast pinot noirs, Cobb Wines combines the winegrowing expertise of David Cobb—one of the pioneers of pinot noir viticulture on the far Sonoma Coast—with the winemaking talents of his son, noted pinot noir specialist Ross Cobb.
The original seeds for Cobb Wines were planted in 1989, when David began cultivating pinot noir vines at his sustainably farmed Coastlands Vineyard. A marine ecologist by trade, David spent years studying soils and climatological charts in his search for the ideal place to found his vineyard. His search led him to the ridgetops of the Sonoma Coast, where he believed he would be able to grow grapes perfectly suited to a more complex and graceful style of California pinot noir. On weekend and summer breaks from college, David would be joined in the vineyard by his son Ross, who quickly grew to love the hands-on work of growing winegrapes.
After graduating with a degree in agroecology and sustainable agriculture, Ross embarked on a winemaking career, learning his craft from an array of pinot noir winemakers on two continents. At the same time, Ross and David began making small, homemade lots of non-commercial pinot noir from Coastlands fruit. “We dug a little cellar out under the deck of our house at Coastlands,” says Ross. “We would punch down the wines in little open-top fermentors on the deck and then gravity flow the wine into barrel. Even though it was all very primitive, the wines showed promise, and each year we learned more.”
Though David’s original plan for Coastlands Vineyard was simply to sell grapes to a few artisan vintners, Ross had a different vision for Coastlands’ exceptional fruit. After spending nearly a decade developing his winemaking skills, he approached his parents with the idea of founding Cobb Wines—a goal that would allow David, Diane and Ross to guide every step of the winemaking process, from the planting of the vineyard to the crafting of a sophisticated, cool-climate style of pinot noir. This goal was realized in 2001, when David and Ross crafted 130 cases of Cobb Wines’ inaugural Coastlands Vineyard pinot noir. The wine sold out almost immediately, and continued to do so with each new vintage.
Since then, the Cobb Wines vineyard program has evolved to include four other hand-tended, independently owned vineyards on the Sonoma Coast. Though these vineyards share certain essential Sonoma Coast characteristics, they each have individual soil types, subtly different microclimates, and unique combinations of pinot noir selections. Not only does this diversity distinguish the Cobb Wines portfolio, it also ensures Ross and David access to excellent fruit every vintage.
In the winery, Ross focuses on a style of pinot noir that authentically reflects the terroir of each vineyard, striving for a more complex, aromatic, lower-alcohol expression of the varietal picked at lower Brix and aged with a modest amount of new French oak. By remaining true to this elegant and complex style, Cobb Wines has earned a reputation for crafting benchmark single-vineyard, Sonoma Coast pinot noirs.
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.
ZZZREFPRODUCT191574 Item# 191574