Winemaker Notes
The deeply colored 2017 Bloom's Field Pinot Noir aligns with a rich nose of red berries, rose hips, seaweed, and soil. The palate is immediate and concentrated without being showy.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
For 12.5% alcohol, this is a very brawny and hearty bottling, starting with aromas of wild berry, smoke and pine needle. Leathery tannins frame the sip, where wild sage and eucalyptus flavors play against rich elderberry and forest berries.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby, the 2017 Pinot Noir Bloom's Field features notes of gunflint, smoked meats, leather and fried herbs hints with baked rhubarb, warm cranberry, wild blackberry and black raspberry. Light to medium-bodied, it begins minerally in the mouth, segueing out to warm spice and restrained fruits, with a firm frame of finely pixelated tannins and seamless acidity, finishing long and savory.
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.