Winemaker Notes
Doc’s Ranch is the second estate vineyard within the Cobb Wines portfolio. Situated on the same ridge as Coastlands, just three miles from the Pacific, Doc’s Ranch shares a similar elevation and geological profile. Doc’s Ranch has a small one-acre parcel of Swan clone that was planted in 1998, with the remaining 7.8 acres of Calera, Pommard, and 114 with a one-acre parcel of Chardonnay planted in 2011. Winemaker Ross Cobb farms this site alongside Coastlands Vineyard. Planted to the eastern side of the ridge, Doc’s Ranch is sheltered from the harsh winds coming off the Pacific. This extra warmth and different clonal material have proven to showcase precise wines with loads of electricity on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
As a taster fascinated by connections with where a wine grows, I have developed a kind of obsession with certain pinot noirs that filter the climate and soils of Sonoma’s far coast through the Pommard clone. To me, Pommard-clone pinot, grown in the right spot, produces some of the most transparent-to-place wines in California. Ross Cobb farms several parcels of pinot noir in Occidental, including Coastlands, which he planted with his parents, marine biologists who settled on a hillside facing the Pacific in 1988. Doc’s Ranch is on the leeward side of that ridge, where Cobb first bottled two clonal blocks separately in 2018—Calera and Pommard. The site faces inland; the soil, once sediments on the ocean floor, now 1,000 feet above the Pacific. The vines responded to that marginal protection from the coast in 2018, preserving summer in their fruit. It might give you the high of walking through a grassy meadow, the rush of the scent of a rose as it opens to the sun, the cool of an evening in July when wild raspberries and cherries provide the most satisfying and simple dessert. What ties it back to the coast is the texture of the wine, an idealized take on the supple tannins of the stems and the skins of the grapes, a detailed pattern that pinot noir can achieve in close proximity to the Pacific.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Doc's Ranch Pommard & 114 Selection has a pale ruby color and alluring aromas of raspberries, blueberries, mushrooms and dried blue flowers. The youthful delicacy on the nose is foiled by intense, juicy flavors on the palate, which offers silty tannins and exceptional length. This 2018 offers upfront pleasure but will age gracefully in the cellar if you enjoy a Pinot Noir with some bottle age.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Pinot Noir Doc's Ranch Vineyard Pommard is forward with turned mineral earth, fresh cherry fruit, and dried roses. The palate is richer in structure but really delicious, with a fruit profile of wild raspberry, black tea leaf, and clove spice. The structure feels a touch more rustic, and I do like it. Allow another year in bottle and drink over the next 15 or more years.
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Decanter
The Pommard & 114 Selection from Doc’s Ranch is the most forward of the 2018 Cobb Pinot Noirs, showcasing the power and black-fruited profiles these clones are known to exude. Aromas of red plums and black cherries are stitched together with dark spice notes of cardamom and dried cloves. The palate is dense by Cobb standards, and it will be interesting to follow the integration of this more robust offering over the coming years.
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.