Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From sandy soils and a higher elevation site, the 2017 Pinot Noir Joy Road offers a beautiful rose and floral character as well as tons of pretty red fruits. It’s medium-bodied and elegant, picking up hints of sandalwood and orange zest with air, and displays a balanced, complex, ethereal style. It’s beautiful today, yet I suspect it will benefit from a year or two in bottle and keep through 2027.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
A tad flashier than its mates, this inviting bottling puts ripe and sweet cherry notes in first place and backs them up with a deftly laid-on trim of creamy oak. With a mix of frontal fruit and solid, deep reserve to its aromas, the wine delivers in the mouth where it is slightly firm in its underbelly but also somewhat supple in its texture as well. And it stays keenly focused and attractive through to a rewardingly lovely, continuous finish. This wine almost asks to be consumed early, but we would strongly counsel that it be put away for five years or more in order to see it round out and gain added complexity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Joy Road Vineyard has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and singular aromas of lilac and lavender, toast, smoke and pipe tobacco with cranberries, black cherries, wet bark, orange peel and amaro—very perfumed! Light to medium-bodied, it's perfumed and earthy in the mouth with youthful touches of new oak, a frame of fine, grainy tannins and juicy freshness, finishing very long and concentrated. This needs more time in bottle!
Respect for the land
DuMOL is a “vineyard up” winery with a fully integrated approach to winegrowing and winemaking. DuMOL planted its high-density estate vineyards and has farmed many of California’s most renowned vineyards for more than two decades.
Commitment to craft
DuMOL sticks to what works and is focused on the fundamentals, finding inspiration in master, visionary producers around the world as DuMOL continually hones its craft—never imitating, ever refining.
Connected on a personal level
This is a project that comes from who the DuMOL team is and what they love. A deep connection is paramount: to the land, the wines, and the customers.
Heritage and experience
Founded in 1996, DuMOL is a latter-day pioneer in the Russian River Valley. Winemaker, Viticulturist and Partner, Andy Smith, farmed the region for nearly a decade before joining in 1999, and Associate Winemakers Julie Cooper and Jenna Davis, and Cellar Master Jaime Eufracio, have over 40 years combined experience at DuMOL.
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.