Winemaker Notes
Rice-Spivak always holds a lovely amount of available fruit on the palate that works nicely with a strong core of minerality and bright acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Rice Spivak Vineyard is pure and expressive this vintage, with layered scents of red cherries, orange peel, saline and earth. The palate is soft, fresh and super spicy, its charming, juicy red berry fruits calling you in again and again for another sip. It's a detailed supple version of this cuvée with immediate drinking appeal.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The soils of Rice Spivak are more ash instead of the more widespread sandstone. The 2018 Pinot Noir Rice Spivak has beautiful purity of fruit on the nose, with cranberry cocktail and dusty earth. The palate is juicy and fresh with grenadine, tree bark, and cinnamon.
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Wine Spectator
Concentrated cherry tart and raspberry flavors show lithe floral accents, supported by vibrant acidity. Pure-tasting and minerally, with a burnished finish that lingers with saffron accents.
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.