Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Mulled cherries, menthol, sweet compost, and flowery incense notes all emerge from the 2016 Pinot Noir Terra De Promissio and it's another elegant, silky wine that has good acidity, as well as tannin. This cuvée spent 15 months in 47% new French oak and can be drunk today or cellared for 7-8 years or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby in color, the 2016 Pinot Noir Terra de Promissio gives aromas of turned earth and savory tobacco with blackberries, black cherries, fresh blueberries and an underlying spicy layer. Medium-bodied and silky with a great core of earth, spice and fruit, it's framed by ripe, grainy tannins and has a long, layered finish.
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Wine Spectator
Expressive plum and blueberry flavors fold in, with raspberry and spice notes and snappy acidity giving this a vibrant expression of young Pinot Noir. Drink now through 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Smoky and powerful in a backbone of full-bodied ripeness and tannin, this is a juicy, succulent wine defined by dark cherry, strawberry and pomegranate, with a thread of persistence earthiness and black tea.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.