Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Jason Drew focuses this wine on fruit from elevations between 1,200 and 1,400 feet, including parcels at Valenti and Perli, with more than half the lot coming from his own vineyard three miles from the coast. This wine captures the salt air and conifer scents of the wind on the ridges along the Mendocino coast, held tight for now in the iron grip of tannins. Built to cellar, this will mellow and grow more welcoming with bottle age.
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.”
Essentially a northern extension of the Sonoma Coast AVA but part of Mendocino County, Mendocino Ridge is one of the rare appellations defined by elevation only. The Mendocino Ridge AVA is reserved only for vineyards at or above 1,200 feet between the Anderson Valley and Pacific Ocean.