Winemaker Notes
#68 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2023
The Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir has notes of dried currants, ripe rose petals, and black tea. Dark cherry flavors are balanced with fresh acidity, persistent mid palate, and a lifted finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This has racy, mouthwatering acidity coursing underneath the core notes of mulberry, bitter cherry and blackberry. Shows the streamlined tang of a coulis, while offering a range of additional bramble, anise and savory tea details through the finish. Delicious. Drink now through 2029.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast has pure aromas of cranberry, blackberry, blood orange, licorice and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate is plush and bright with layered fruit, earth and spice flavors and a long, nuanced finish.
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.