Winemaker Notes
A concentrated wine, with impressive energy to its red and black fruit flavors and subtle earth tones.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Deep ruby colored, the 2017 Pinot Noir Laguna Ridge Vineyard is another complex 2017 and has loads of cassis, blood orange, red plum, and spice aromas and flavors. It too is medium-bodied, racy, vibrant and elegant, yet has beautiful depth of fruit. It’s approachable today and will keep for upwards of a decade or more given its balance and purity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2017 Pinot Noir Laguna Ridge Vineyard offers dried cranberry, dried red and black cherries, cinnamon stick, tobacco leaf and charcuterie with notions of violets, orange peel, tree bark and earthy touches. Medium-bodied and silky, it's youthfully coiled, hinting at latent flavor layers, sturdily framed by lightly chalky tannins and juicy freshness, finishing long and savory. This needs more time in bottle to unwind. Rating: 93+
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.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.