Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very fruity, full-bodied and oak-driven, this wine wraps almost-sweet red and black cherries in vanilla beans and baking spices from new oak barrels. It’s broad, mouth-filling and rich in texture.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the reds, the 2022 Pinot Noir Calesa Vineyard is a notably darker hue in the glass compared to the 2021 and has ripe, warming aromas of black cherry preserve, varnish, turned earth, and toasted spice. The palate feels more balanced but remains quite ripe, with a silky, supple, rounded texture, ripe tannins, and notes of baked red plums through the finish.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.