Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a very supple wine from a vineyard just north of Highway 246, with baked strawberry, iron, cinnamon and allspice aromas, recalling French toast on the nose. The palate is tarter, with cranberry, rose petal, fennel frond and vanilla flavors that carry deep into the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2014 Pinot Noir Drum Canyon Vineyard offers up notions of cranberries, red currants and Bing cherries with a lovely perfumed undercurrent of roses and lavender. Medium-bodied, elegant and refreshing, it has chewy tannins supporting the lovely, perfumed fruit, finishing on a persistent earthy note.
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.