Winemaker Notes
This 2020 Pinot Noir delivers the subtle elegance that can only come from sustainably farmed, cool-climate vineyards. Key aromatics include black cherries, currants and raspberries with notes of violets, vanilla and toasty oak. The palate is rich, smooth and silky with a lingering sweet oak finish. This Pinot Noir is the perfect wine to serve with salmon, pork, lamb or soft cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Fresh red fruit scent with herbal notes. Structured, weighty palate with ripe strawberry. A wine of interest, over delivering for the price.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a value-priced bottling with plenty of satisfaction inside. Crushed slate, strawberry and bay leaf aromas lead the nose into a palate that’s warmed by sandalwood, wrapped in a tense frame and still generous with dried cherry, baked cranberry and orange rind flavors. Editors’ Choice
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 geographic and climatic paradise for grape vines, Monterey is a part of the greater Central Coast AVA and contains within it five smaller sub-appellations, including Arroyo Seco, San Lucas, San Bernabe, Hames Valley and the famous Santa Lucia Highlands. The climate is relatively warm but tempered by cool, coastal winds, allowing the regions in Monterey County an exceptionally long growing season. Bud break often happens two weeks sooner and harvest tends to be two weeks later compared to other surrounding regions.
Monterey’s coastal side, where the cooling ocean fog allows grapes to develop a perfect sugar-acid balance, excels in the production of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. Warmer, inland subzones are home to fleshy, concentrated and full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Chardonnay, covering about 40% of vineyard acreage, is the most widely planted grape in all of Monterey County.