Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Even better than the estate release, the 2013 Pinot Noir Drum Canyon Vineyard shows slightly more stem and discrete oak, with ample black cherry, sweet black raspberry, rose petal and underbrush aromas and flavors. Medium+-bodied, silky, seamless and with rocking purity, it will have a decade of longevity. The elevage was 25% stems and aging in 20% new French oak. These are all high-class releases from the team here, and are well worth checking out.
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Wine Enthusiast
Iron, black slate. raspberries and snapped sagebrush show on this wine from the Dierberg family's property along Highway 246. There are ample layers of fruit and spice to the palate, with raspberry, pomegranate and hibiscus evolving into dried rose petals and a bright florality, proving both quite flavorful and yet refreshingly light.
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.