Winemaker Notes
Classic black cherry, mint, iron and smoked earth combined with minerality. Beautiful palate with a medium to full body and perfectly integrated acidity. An elegant, lengthy finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Pinot Noir Garys Vineyard offers more minerality and iron/meaty notes as well as classic black cherry fruits, mint, and smoked earth. It’s beautiful on the palate as well and has medium to full body, perfectly integrated acidity, and an elegant, lengthy personality. Drink it anytime over the coming decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged 16 months in 47% new French oak, the medium ruby colored 2016 Pinot Noir Garys' Vineyard opens with a touch of alcoholic heat and balsamic, with a pretty perfume of dried rose petals, cranberries and tangerine peel underneath, plus a core of bright red cherries and berries. The palate is light to medium-bodied and silky. It's bright, spicy and energetic in the mouth with a soft frame and juicy freshness, finishing long and super perfumed. Rating: 91+
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.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.