Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromatic with sliced strawberries and blackberries alongside dried oranges and wet bark. Medium-bodied, showing a solid core and chewy tannins. Funnels down to a long finish with cool, citrusy fruit. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Grapes for the 2023 Pinot Noir Quarter Moon Vineyard were harvested October 10–27. Matured for 13 months in 52% new French oak, it has layered aromas of wild berry and plum preserves, orange peel, mixed tea leaves, mossy bark and earth. The medium-bodied palate balances generous fruit with well-matched oak spice. It’s framed by smooth, dusty tannins and mouthwatering acidity and has a very long, nuanced finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fresh and lively aromas of tart cherry and fresh raspberry mingle with purple flowers, cedar, and cocoa on the nose of this wine. The palate delivers fine tannins and generous acidity that frame flavors of cranberry, Bing cherry, pithy orange, and cinnamon before a finish with echoes of chopped herbs and flowers. A gorgeous expression of these dramatic hillsides, the wine will soften beautifully. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
This is seductive, with dark, succulent blackberry and mulberry compote flavors laced with flashes of apple wood, anise and black tea as they cruise through. Late ink and mineral hints give this a finishing kick, while mouthwatering acidity percolates throughout. Drink now through 2032.
Joseph Phelps Vineyards is a family-owned winery committed to crafting world class, estate-grown wines. Founded in 1973 when Joe Phelps purchased a former cattle ranch near St. Helena in the Napa Valley, the winery now controls and farms nearly 375 acres of vines on eight estate vineyards in St. Helena, the Stags Leap District, Oakville, Rutherford, Oak Knoll District, Carneros and South Napa Valley. In 1999, the Phelps family added 100 acres of vineyard property near the town of Freestone on the Sonoma Coast, where Phelps now grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Phelps is best known for its flagship Napa Valley blend of red Bordeaux varietals, Insignia, first produced in 1974. Awarded Wine Spectator's "Wine of the Year" in 2005, Insignia is widely regarded as a qualitative benchmark for California winemaking.
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.