Winemaker Notes
With perfect weather during budbreak and bloom, the 2018 vintage at Hallberg Ranch yielded a robust crop and deliciously fruitful wines. The wine brimming with fresh aromas: fresh picked wildflowers, fresh plum, fresh strawberry and fresh cherry notes dance above the glass. This wine is equally exciting on the palate, with sweet tannins, and an underlying acid-driven energy framing the lush red berry, blood orange nectar and marzipan flavors. Though there is an idyllic youthful bloom to this captivating wine that makes it hard to resist now, it has the structure and stuffing to promise a long, fascinating evolution.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.