Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Offers fresh, juicy, snappy raspberry and wild berry flavors, shaded by spice and wilted rose, ending with a delicate, detailed, minerally finish of understated elegance. Drink now through 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noirs display much less extraction, tannin and body than vintages from 10 or 12 years ago reveal. The 2012 Pinot Noir Kistler Vineyard, which comes primarily from the Calera clone, has oodles of strawberries and floral blueberries in a soft, round, medium-bodied style. Pure, pretty and elegant, this is a Pinot Noir to drink over the next 5-6 years.
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.