Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged in 25% new French oak for 12 months, the medium ruby-purple colored 2016 Pinot Noir Fiddlestix Vineyard sings of red and purple flowers—violets, roses and lavender—over a core of kirsch, fresh raspberries and tilled soil. Medium-bodied with great vibrancy and a soft, fine-grained texture, it finishes long and perfumed.
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Wine Enthusiast
Minty herbs of tarragon and green sage give tremendous depth to the baked boysenberry aromas on the nose of this bottling. Wild sagebrush and chaparral herbs also overload the palate in pleasing ways, enhancing the brisk elderberry and mulberry flavors.
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.