Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very alluringly floral nose here with dried roses, leaves, bergamot and plenty of red cherries on offer, leading to a very fresh and succulent palate that delivers such intense and focused fruit flavor. Accurate. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby, the 2016 Pinot Noir has a gregarious nose of red licorice, Bing cherries, dried cranberries, rhubarb and warm red berries with notes of earth, tea leaves and cola. The light to medium-bodied palate is softly structured with good fruit intensity, juicy acidity and lots of spices coming through on the long finish.
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Wine Spectator
Steeped tea details accent the dried berry and ripe cherry flavors. Shows lilting spiciness, with forest floor notes on the 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.”
Perhaps the most historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.