Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Sea View Ridge, adjacent to the Frances Thompson Vineyard, is Flower's most recent planting (completed in 2000), Perhaps because the vines are so young, the wine is a little temperamental. When we opened the bottle, it seemed big and hot, with cola and blackberry flavors along with blunt oak. Later in the day, and continuing into the next, the alcohol and oak were subsumed into a cooler fruit tone-still dense and chocolate-rich, but now emphasizing cherry and a coastal feel of sassafras and conifers. Cellar it for a year or two to let the wine settle into its structure.
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.