Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Leading off the reds, the 2019 Pinot Noir Zotovich Family Vineyard was 70% destemmed and saw 15 months in French oak. It has lots of obvious stems on the nose, with darker berry fruits as well as peppery herbs, violets, spring flowers, and scorched earth. There's a kiss of Dujac-like character here, and it's medium-bodied, with a seamless, gorgeously polish mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's incredibly well done, and I'd be a happy drinker. It should keep for a decade, if not longer, although it's brilliant today.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2019 Pinot Noir Zotovich Family Vineyard has notably pure, layered aromas of cranberry and blackberry with accents of underbrush, cinnamon stick, licorice and orange peel that open to more detail as it spends time in the glass. Light-bodied, chalky and fresh, it offers tremendous concentration-to-weight ratio, its core of spicy fruit lingering long after the wine has gone. It's a very elegant Pinot with plenty of upfront allure or the ability to develop savory complexity in bottle over the next decade.
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Wine & Spirits
Zotovich Vineyard, planted on soils that are almost pure sand and in direct line of stiff Pacific winds, can yield fruit with a kind of grippy transparency. Ryan Deovlet has largely stayed out of its way, adding texture by his deft use of whole clusters in the fermentation (30 percent), but leaving the wild red fruit to fill in. The wine starts out smoky and floral, with violet and bergamot scents, the cluster spice framing gorgeous, rich cherry and raspberry flavors, and the combination is brisk and exuberant.
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.