Winemaker Notes
The 2023 Reserve shows remarkable early complexity and focus. Upon opening, tart cherry and cranberry dominate, with notes of plum skin, resin and wet stone emerging with air. On the palate, the wine is medium bodied, persistent and high-toned. Expressive and complex in its youth, this wine has the acidic potential to go the distance in the cellar.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A bright red color, the 2023 Pinot Noir Reserve is spiced and pure, with compact aromas of nutmeg, cranberries, fresh mint, and orange peel. Medium-bodied, it has a focused structure, crunchy red fruit, and refreshing acidity, with savory herbal undertones and fine tannins carrying through the finish. Drink over the next 10-12 years. Drink 2026-2038.
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James Suckling
A juicy, flavorful red, showing sliced berries, hints of cedar and tea with strawberries and oranges. Some umami. Medium-bodied, offering lovely cherries with peach undertones. Crisp finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Estate Reserve is a blend from several older blocks across the property, all heritage selection. Dark red-toned fruit, rose petal, lavender, dried herbs and crushed leaves open with a bit of time in the glass, but this is a very reticent wine. Readers will have to exercise some patience.
Rating: 95+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Reserve has expressive scents of pomegranate, blackberry, black tea leaves, forest floor and bitters. The medium-bodied palate is bursting with wild, spicy fruit. It’s framed by refined, chalky tannins, and its bright, bursting acidity lures you back again and again for another sip. It’s delicious now but will benefit from cellaring.
Rating: 94+
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.