Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Light, fresh and vibrant, sliced strawberries with a rose-perfume edge. Very fragrant and such a pure expression of pinot. The palate has succulent and juicy acidity with super fine tannins. The real idea of a reserve with such juicy and pure fruit on the palate. Long, fine and elegant tannins here. Great definition. Elegant and fragrant with gently earthy depth.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2017 Pinot Noir Reserve Estate is a cellar selection from the best terroirs in the vineyard. It has a darker fruited style (blackberries, black cherries) as well as beautiful spice, savory herbs, loamy earth, and floral nuances. Medium-bodied and elegant, with impressive tannins (they're not 2016 tannins, but they're ripe and polished), this balanced, already complex, layered Pinot Noir can be drunk today with incredible pleasure or cellared for over a decade. All these 2017 Hirsch Pinot Noisr remind me slightly of 2011 red Burgundies with their sunny yet also savory profiles.
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Wine Spectator
Focused and structured, with precise red currant, cherry and plum tart flavors that are supported by vibrant acidity. Ripe minerality emerges midpalate, leading to a finish featuring lingering toasty accents.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a blend of the best parcels at Hirsch and usually comes from older vines. The 2017 Pinot Noir Reserve is pale to medium ruby and youthfully reticent on the nose to begin, slowly unfurling to fresh strawberry, wild blackberry and raspberry with nuances of forest floor, dust, cranberry, violet and an underlying savory character. Light to medium-bodied, it’s silky in the mouth with a great intensity of purely expressed fruits and lots of mineral nuance. It has a sturdy frame of grainy tannins and juicy freshness to revive the long, layered finish. Give this another year or two in bottle. Rating: 93+
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Wine & Spirits
Hirsch’s Reserve is a barrel selection from the oldest blocks on the family’s far-coast estate. The wine’s ambition comes across in the grand-cru scent of the oak, while its provenance is clear in scents of beach rose and cool ocean air. Tight and austere as a young wine, this should blossom with several years in the cellar.
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.