Winemaker Notes
A beautifully concentrated vintage with impressive depth, balanced acidity, and lower sugar levels, producing wines of power, elegance, and balance.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A restrained style, with pretty notes of red tea and sandalwood that lace up a core of bitter cherry and damson plum. Gently dusty in feel on the perfumed finish
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of dusty Bing cherry, spiced cranberry compote, and cinnamon drive the nose of this Pinot. The palate brings flavors of cranberry relish, purple flowers, and earthy mushroom before a lingering finish with elements of spice and herb mélange.
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.