Winemaker Notes
Layered with bing cherry, red delicious apple, cranberry, and orange peel coupled with black tea, bouquet garni, and more earthy notes of wet terracotta and iron. Exquisitely balanced with depth, power, and lively acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard shows the house style and is another brilliant wine. All destemmed and brought up exclusively in French oak, 30% new, its deeper ruby hue is followed by a richer, powerful nose of both red and black fruits, roasted herbs, scorched earth, and chalky minerality.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple in color, the 2019 Pinot Noir la Encantada Vineyard has intense, alluring aromas of red cherry, pomegranate and blueberry with slowly emerging nuances of crème de violette, mint, cocoa and hints of balsamic. The medium-bodied palate has a powerful core of dark, floral fruit supported by grainy tannins, energetic acidity, and it has a long, youthfully coiled finish. Offer it another 2-3 years in bottle to unwind. Rating: 95+
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.