Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
There's a heady mix of smoke and bacon fat on this bottling from one of the appellation's top vineyards, along with baked red cherry and dried fennel, all swirling together in a very appealing manner. The hickory-smoke touches are more reserved on the sip, where tart strawberry mixes with licorice, marjoram and thyme.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The outstanding 2014 Pinot Noir North Fiddlestix Vineyard reveals loads of sassafras and damp earth, but impressive quantities of black cherry and blackcurrant fruit with clove and allspice. This outstanding Pinot Noir is complex and best drunk over the next 5-6 years.
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.