Winemaker Notes
The 2019 vintage produced a vivacious and quaffable wine that can be drunk now with great pleasure or cellared for a few years. Exuberant, expressive red fruit is balanced by bright acidity and modest tannins. Aromatic and expressive, this is a
precocious and delicious wine.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2019 The Bohan-Dilon Pinot Noir is the only cuvée from the Hirsch lineup that contains just a touch (3%) of non-estate fruit, which feels like a fair exchange for such a reasonable price tag at this quality level! It is deeply scented with dried cranberries and red cherries, orange peel, Angostura bitters and dusty earth. Light-bodied and delicate, the palate offers powdery tannins and seamless acidity with an intense core of citrus-laced fruits, and it has a long, nuanced finish.
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James Suckling
Aromas of ripe strawberries with some pine needles and dried seaweed follow through to a medium body with fine, linear tannins that are racy and class. Subtle finish. Give it time to soften, but already so pretty.
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Wine & Spirits
This is the Hirsches’ neighborhood wine, named for the road that leads to their far corner of the coast. It includes fruit from the Hellenthal Vineyard, adjacent to Hirsch (only 3 percent in this vintage). Even if the Hirsches took the best away for their top bottlings, what’s left is pretty righteous—a transparent ruby-red color, an equally transparent cherry flavor darkening to black currant and morels. Vibrant and light, with a powerful tannic spice that adds some machismo, this is a great vintage of Bohan-Dillon.
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.