Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Spicy and thick in rich, rewarding flavors of baked rhubarb and strawberry spiced by nutmeg, this bold red is also floral in rose petal. Velvety smooth and full bodied in style, it delivers concentrated complexity and undeniable appeal.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Pinot Noir Earl Stephens Vineyard comes from a Russian River site and was brought up in 55% new French oak. It has a darker core of fruit, showing notes of tart black cherries, cranberries, damp earth, leafy underbrush, and spring flowers. It's elegant, silky and seamless on the palate, with a beautiful tension and vibrancy in its texture, as well as a great finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby, the 2017 Pinot Noir Earl Stephens Vineyard gives up Bing cherries, tart cranberries, earth, wet leaves, woodsmoke and blackberries on the nose with a dusty streak. The palate is medium-bodied, silky and plushly fruited with addicting freshness and a gently grainy frame to support, finishing long.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.