Winemaker Notes
Pair this Pinot Noir with a grilled pork chop with a peach-bourbon barbeque sauce or a gourmet burger with blue cheese and caramelized onions. For a cheese pairing, try alongside blue cheese with pickled cherries.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Ripe, expressive, 'Cherry Tunes' red fruit with medicinal overlay, cookie dough spice, and hints of wild jasmine and charred wood. Ripe and warming.
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Wine Spectator
This svelte version is filled with juicy richness to the concentrated red plum and cherry pastry flavors that are long and well-spiced. There's minerally freshness midpalate, with lilting creaminess on the finish. Drink now
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple in color, the 2018 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley jumps from the glass with exuberant notes of ripe redcurrants, pomegranate and raspberry coulis with hints of violets, dark chocolate and mossy tree bark. Medium-bodied, refreshing and elegant in the mouth, it delivers lovely red berry and earthy layers with very fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and perfumed.
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Wine Enthusiast
This smooth wine offers a moderate weight and polished tannins that carry deep notes of forest floor, black tea and a layering of red fruit. Crisp on the finish, it nicely represents the appellation and vintage.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 J Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir is nicely staged and ready for action. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of red fruit and dried earth. Enjoy it with grilled lamb lollipops. (Tasted: July 18, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.