Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Similarly styled (to the 2010), the 2012 Pinot Noir Gap’s Crown has plenty of charred spices, plum, licorice, scorched earth and dried flowers to go with a medium to full-bodied, rich, yet nicely focused style on the palate. It took plenty of air, so decant if drinking anytime soon. It should have a solid 8-10 years of evolution.
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Wine Spectator
Exhibiting rich dark berry, raspberry, mocha and savory herb notes, this is very complex and well-built, with firm, fine-grained tannins that give the flavors traction. Drink now through 2022. 2,186 cases made.
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.