Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Opens with rich aromas of plum, oak, cocoa and green hay. Medium-weight and balanced with fine acidity and good tannic structure, this has potent, palate-filling plum, chocolate and spice flavors. The finish shows deep fruit and plush tannins. Best from 2004–2009+.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2000 Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch, from the cold climate Sonoma Valley appellation known as Green Valley, is a big, dark ruby/garnet-colored offering with high acid levels, a pleasant touch of French oak, hints of raspberries, plums, figs, and cherries, and rich, medium to full-bodied, tightly wound flavors that are just beginning to emerge. It is a large-scaled but balanced, finesse-styled Pinot that requires 1-2 years of cellaring. Enjoy it over the following 7-8 years. This wine is an outstanding, complex, elegant, flavorful effort with multiple nuances. It is unfiltered.
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.”
Situated on the foggier and colder western edge of the Russian River Valley, almost abutting the Sonoma Coast appellation, Green Valley is one of California’s most reputable Chardonnay and Pinot noir producing regions. It is also a wonderful source of sparkling wines made from these varieties.
Goldridge soils abound throughout the Green Valley appellation. This fine, dark, sandy loam and fractured sandstone is derived from the remains of ancient inland seabeds dating back three to five million years. It is valuable for high quality grape growing because of its excellent drainage and low fertility.