Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby, the nose of the 2016 Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard Old Firs Block offers savory cranberry sauce, cracked peppercorn, tar and violets with more detail emerging over time. The light-bodied palate delivers concentrated but perfumed, detailed fruits, gently grainy and fresh and finishing long and lifted. What a lovely dynamic of powerful fruit and understated structure.
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Decanter
A darker, more brooding iteration of this classic Sonoma Coast site. Aromas include pomegranate peel, sassafras, and anise. Its texture is deep and broad but somewhat introverted at first, filling out into plushness after an hour or so of being open. The finish is both dark-fruited and delicate. Drinking Window 2020 - 2039
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Jeb Dunnuck
Spice box, pine forest, camphor, rose petals, and sweet red and black fruits all emerge from the 2016 Pinot Noir Coastlands Old Firs Block and it's another medium-bodied, fresh, Burgundian style effort that shines for its complexity and elegance. It has plenty of acidity, yet its nicely integrated into the wine and everything is in the right places here. Give it a few years.
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Wine Enthusiast
As its name suggests, this most definitely effuses in forest floor and grippy, supportive walls of firm tannin and oak. From a strong opening, it evolves slowly and with nuance around a light-bodied core of white pepper, effusive red fruit and blood orange, the latter helping to highlight the innate backbone of acidity.
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James Suckling
Spiced strawberries make a fresh and vibrant impression, leading to a palate with a succulent array of raspberries and cherries, framed in lightly chewy tannins. Drink or hold.
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.