Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
2012 Sonoma Coast San Andreas Fault Pinot Noir Representing both the fog-cooled western ridges of the Hirsch estate and the slightly sunnier inland ridges, this is a particularly tense, energetic pinot noir from coastal Sonoma. The wine's flavor and structure are almost indistinguishable, its sandy grip delivering cool, pristine, penetrating flavors of rosy spice and tilled soil. It remains firm and bright even with three days of air, a testament to the maturity of the vines that grew the wine, some of which were part of David Hirsch's initial planting in 1980. Let its lean power unwind for a few years before opening it with something as simple as a roast chicken, allowing the wine to take center stage.
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.