Winemaker Notes
Great soaring aromatic intensity: tiny red and black tightly wound fruits, minerals, cassis and red apple skin then savory umami characters akin to kelp, iodine, and herbal pine notes. Wild berry fruit drives the tangy palate. There's a lovely herbal, woodsy edge emanating from the vines themselves. As the wine expands, there's a deep concentrated fruit pastille impression, before driving acidity extends the wine's lilting echoing finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
So much iodine and seaweed character on the nose with plum and dried cherry undertones. Medium-bodied with very tightly grained tannins that give this density and composure. It’s compacted and chewy. You feel the sea in this. Unique. Give it two or three years to open and present its lovely self. Drink after 2026.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The MacIntyre Estate Vineyard was planted in 2016 from Calera clone only, on very sandy soil, and the tight compact berries ripen at low sugar levels. The 2022 Pinot Noir MacIntyre Estate Vineyard is a bright ruby color and offers notes of fresh fruit, savory sea spray, tea leaf, and bright redcurrants. It’s medium-bodied, with fine but present tannins and shares a lot of similarities with the 2014, with a balanced spine of acidity to tie it all together. Drink it over the next 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir MacIntyre Estate Vineyard was harvested on August 24 before the Labor Day heat wave. It has intoxicating aromas of pomegranate, rhubarb, hibiscus tea and iodine. The light-bodied palate is expressive and pure with a finely astringent texture, mouthwatering acidity and a long, latent finish. It will benefit from 3-5 years in bottle.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Spectator
A racy, fresh style, with hibiscus and iris notes leading the way for bitter plum and cherry puree flavors. Shows a twinge of minerality on the finish as this stretches out, showing nice focus. Drink now through 2030. 748 cases made.
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.