Winemaker Notes
Loads of ripe raspberry, strawberry and cherry pie flavors and aromas as well as a savory, smoky note. It is this savory note that separates this wine from more straightforward, fruity Pinot Noirs. It is a fairly big wine, and like all the Kingston reds, it will benefit from a little air; but this is a wine for enjoying now while it is
youthful and fresh.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dried rose petals, orange blossom, fresh citrus and spices. Light to medium body, delicious, juicy tannins and a fine finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Tobiano Pinot Noir follows the style of the 2016—lighter and fresher, with a clean and attractive nose of red berries and faint spices with a herbal twist. The palate is elegant, medium-bodied and fresh, with very fine tannins, clean and focused flavors, fleshy fruit, moderate alcohol and very good acidity.
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Wine Enthusiast
Lightly herbal red fruit aromas are textbook for Pinot Noir, while this feels medium in body. Spiced raspberry and watermelon flavors are restrained and tread lightly on a fresh finish. Restraint and balance are the keystones to this feminine-style PN.
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 region that has become synonymous with some of the best whites of Chile, the Casablanca Valley is full of dozens of bodegas who either grow fruit here or come from outside to source from local growers for their own white wine programs. The valley runs from east to west, which means that its westernmost vineyards receive the most cooling influence from the reliable afternoon sea breezes. The soils also tend to be heavier in clay in the west, whereas the eastern end of the valley is warmer and its soils are predominantly granitic. Sauvignon blanc thrives here, Chardonnay does well and Pinot noir is not uncommon.