Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Christmas spice, peppery mint, candied cherries and hints of strawberries all emerge from the 2015 Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard, and it's another beautiful, elegant, seamless Pinot Noir from this terrific estate. However, like too many 2015s, it drops off on the finish, yet the tannin is beautifully managed and I suspect it will evolve gracefully.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Pinot Noir la Encantada Vineyard offers up appealing aromas of candied peel, spice, red berry fruit and sweet soil. On the palate, it's supple, juicy, open-knit, framed by light structuring tannins and nicely balanced in profile. With some more depth and complexity, it would score higher.
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Wine Enthusiast
Winemaker Billy Wathen makes so many single-vineyard wines that he's able to play around with styles, and uses this bottling to explore the lower alcohol side of Pinot Noir. Extremely floral aromas of rose petals, hibiscus and carnation meet with light raspberry on the elegant nose, while the lighter-bodied palate mixes slightly sour red fruit with cedar, thyme and oregano.
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Wine Spectator
Well-sculpted, with savory vibrancy to the red plum, macerated cherry and raspberry flavors. The minerally finish is svelte and full of sumptuous spiciness. Drink now through 2022.
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.