Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
This is the third vintage of sommelier Raj Parr and winemaker Sashi Moorman’s estate project in the Santa Rita Hills, using vineyards they acquired after Evening Land exited California to focus on Oregon wines. Memorious grows in dark, heavy clay, the vineyard facing west; Moorman finds it gives a more structured wine than some of his other sites in the region. There’s a captivating discretion to this wine, its red fruit layered with umami tones of salt and kelp, as crunchy and savory as a radish just pulled from the earth, the flavors powerful and bright in the end.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a tiny 3.5-acre plot in the Sta. Rita Hills that's southwest facing and battered by the incessant winds of the region, the 2013 Pinot Noir Memorious is the last to be harvested and, according to Sashi, tends to be more burly and structured due to its think skins. It has the classic Domaine de la Cote bouquet of rose petal, salt block, underbrush and strawberries to go with a medium-bodied, layered and pretty style on the palate. The acidity is nicely integrated, it has plenty of fruit through the mid-palate and a clean finish. Already drinking nicely, it should evolve nicely through 2021.
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.