Winemaker Notes
The 2024 vintage is a return to a more classic California. Vineyards, buoyed by abundant winter rain, emerged replenished and resilient. The vines enjoyed a balanced, mostly cool summer, allowing us to pick at optimum ripeness. The wines showcase grace, structure, dense aromas and a promise of tremendous longevity. Pomegranate, dark red cherry, blood
orange, juicy plum, forest floor and cinnamon with a layered, deep palate.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Ripe and fleshy, with a persistent flow of plum, raspberry and cherry puree flavors. Sweet spice and red tea hints infuse the finish, which is sleek and refined in feel. The fruit expands nicely in the glass, too, showing sappy intensity. Drink now through 2034.
-
Vinous
The 2024 Pinot Noir Occidental Ridge Vineyard is a very pretty, sensual wine. Soft contours and silky tannins immediately convey finesse. Crushed flowers, spice, red cherry/plum fruit, mocha, new leather, licorice and tobacco fill out the layers. This fruity, mid-weight Pinot offers tons of immediacy.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.