Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A layered and fine-grained pinot with strawberry and cherry aromas and flavors. Flint and some cranberry and watermelon, too. Pure. Medium to full body, bright acidity and light asphalt to the strawberry and raspberry undertones.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Eden Rift Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir is well-built and lasting on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of rustic earth, savory spices, black fruit, and black tea. Try it with garlic and rosemary-infused roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: June 17, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Pinot Noir Estate is another outstanding wine. Notes of Bing cherries, mulberries, loamy earth, and forest floor all emerge from the glass, and it's medium-bodied, has a rounded, balanced mouthfeel, nicely integrated acidity, and enough structure to keep it drinking well for at least 7-8 years. It's rock solid.
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Wine Enthusiast
Clean lines of plump black raspberry, pastry crust and tarragon make for a delicious nose on this estate bottling. Snappy raspberry flavors kick off the sip, where lilac, wild mint and dried herbs prove both fresh and delicate.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made from Dijon clone vines, the 2018 Pinot Noir Estate has a pale ruby-purple color and scents of spiced rhubarb and black cherries with notes of fragrant earth and tangerine peel. The palate is light-bodied, silky, bright and juicy with spice-laced fruits and a layered finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Vinous and red fruited, of the six 2018s from Eden Rift, this may be the most structured, showing a rosy scent at a distance, and dried cherry and strawberry flavors. There’s much in place but it needs time.
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.”
Part of the larger Central Coast AVA, the valley was historically an important source of grapes for Almaden Vineyards before it was acquired by Constellation Brands in the 1980s. At 1,100 feet, the San Andreas Fault divides the valley so that one side is granite and sandstone, and the other is granite and limestone. Its position along the San Andreas fault makes the region well suited for excellent Central Coast wine production. Top varietals include Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and rose.