Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Soft and billowy, this small-production Pinot offers up just the right recipe of spice, cinnamon, red raspberries and cherries. Texturally, it is a pillow-like bubble of comfy. There's a distinct minerality one doesn't usually taste with t his variety. Sourced from three vineyards on the Sonoma Coast - Gap's Crown, Sun Chase and Goldrock Ridge- this hand-picked and night-harvested red is aged 11 months in 100% French oak (55% new).
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Candied cherry, cola, brown sugar and toasty oak flavors give this Pinot an immediate deliciousness. Savory acidity and fine tannins add to the sense of balanced importance. While it isn’t an ager, it is a dramatic Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir to drink now.
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.