Winemaker Notes
This Pinot Noir opens with aromas of ripe Bing cherries and rose petal. Notes of fresh strawberry blend with complex flavors of shitake mushroom, forest floor, and bright notes of citrus peel. This wine is medium-bodied with well-integrated acidity and supple tannins. Finishes nicely with cola and lovely brown spices.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
At first this is a tumble of forest scents, from mushrooms to conifer and eucalyptus. Then is shades toward eggplant purple in its fruit, with wood spice lasting. As it settles down in the glass, the fruit becomes bosky and dusky while holding that spice. Decant if for braised rabbit.
Best Buy
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.