Winemaker Notes
Balanced fruit, minerality and a lasting finish are hallmarks of this rich Pinot Noir. Beautiful floral mix of rose petal and violet on the nose followed intricately by juicy, subtle red fruit and balanced acidity/minerality. Decadent "burgundian" style Pinot Noir from one of California's finest vineyards.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Gonzalez added 28% Swan clone fruit to the 777 that entirely made up earlier vintages. Contributing more acidity, it also shows in this wine’s minerality and high-toned fruit. Scents of spiced clove, cranberry, and rhubarb lead to a dream of white-peppered blackberry, plum, and jasmine. Rose and gardenia pay tribute to a fantastic vineyard.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2018 Pinot Noir Sun Chase Vineyard has gregarious scents of cranberry sauce and warm blackberries with loads of spicy accents and bright touches of citrus peel. Medium-bodied, it has spicy fruits in a silky frame, with a long, juicy finish.
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.