Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Ehren Jordan, the winemaker at Turley and Neyers, purchases fruit for his own label from this vineyard in the Green Valley. The wine catches that pinot noir sweetspot in its roundness and generous weight, while maintaining a direct, spicy lift from start to finish. Its cool, luscious tree fruit flavors taste clean and pure. A versatile, elegant red, whether you're serving fish in a red wine sauce or rare roast beef.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Ehren Jordan's Burgundian-styled Pinot Noirs include the 2004 Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch. Its medium ruby color is accompanied by sweet cherry and pomegranate aromas, terrific fruit on the attack and mid-palate, and a long, spicy finish. Clearly premier cru Cote de Beaune-like in its orientation...
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.