Winemaker Notes
Brilliantly structured, with expressive violets, raspberry, and dark cherry notes. The juicy flavors of plums and black berries dominate the palate. The refined tannins and supportive acid offers balance to the lingering finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the reds, the 2017 Pinot Noir Larry Hyde Vineyard offers terrific cherry and mulberry fruits as well as notes of spice, forest floor, and subtle marine-like saltiness. It's medium-bodied and balanced, with a wonderful texture and a great finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Toasted oak and turned earth aromas are swept clean by vibrant red cherry and ripe strawberry flavors in this full-bodied, rather broad-textured wine. Made by the Larry Hyde family from its famous vineyard-designate property, it has mouthcoating richness, moderate tannins and great concentration to bring a lingering finish
Editors' Choice -
James Suckling
A full-bodied pinot with lots of ripe plum and chocolate and underlying walnut and dried-stem character. It’s full, creamy and flavorful. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Larry Hyde has a medium ruby-purple color, wafting out of the glass with fragrant scents of raspberry preserves, Morello cherries and cranberry sauce with suggestions rose oil, cinnamon stick and cloves plus a waft of underbrush. The medium-bodied palate is wonderfully elegant and refreshing, featuring silken tannins and a quiet intensity of red fruit preserves, finishing long and perfumed.
As early as the 1970s Carneros became known as a source of terrific Pinot Noir, and was one of the first California regions to gain such a reputation. The combination of sunny days, cooling fog and thin clay soils are tailor-made for the variety. Another factor in Pinot Noir’s prominent place here is vintners’ willingness to experiment widely. The history of the grape in Carneros is marked by continuous research into clonal variations, viticultural techniques and site selection. Careful evaluation over time has revealed a signature flavor profile as well. Complex aromas and flavors of cherry, red berry, spice, earth and cola appear time and again in Carneros Pinot Noir. To this day the appellation remains one of California’s standard bearers for the variety.