Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This has a focussed and slightly reductive nose of dried roses, gunpowder and matchbook, while orange zest and cranberry carry the palate through to the finish. It's a beautiful, understated expression of Emmaline Ann that keeps you coming back to the glass. It will be interesting to see how further integration of the reductive elements will change it. 200 cases produced 22 months spent in French oak, 35% new. Drinking Window 2020 - 2025
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Pinot Noir Emmaline Ann Vineyard takes time to open on the nose. It segues from deep notions of fungi, iodine and earth with licorice and citrus-laced fruits emerging over time. The medium-bodied palate strikes a lovely balance of flavorful fruit and savory, mature accents, firm and fresh with a long finish. It's drinking wonderfully now but could age another 3-5 years in the cellar.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a light, clear and beguiling wine, not for everyone, somewhat reduced and yet lurking in brooding fruit and interwoven spice. It drinks almost like a white wine in its shocking minerality, before delving into a dark and noble forest floor's worth of pine, wild mushroom and rose. Let this wine open awhile and enjoy how it changes in the glass.
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.