Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is a beautiful wine that comes from four vineyards, Gap’s Crown, Griffin’s Lair, Terra de Promissio and Walala. It has a deep ruby/semi-opaque color that is followed by a youthful, rich and concentrated wine offering classic dark cherries, plum, licorice, ground herbs and baking-spice-driven aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, layered and structured, it opens up beautifully with air, has seamlessly integrated fruit, tannin and alcohol, and stays classy and nicely focused on the finish. It can be enjoyed now with a decant, but will be better in another year, and have over a decade of longevity.
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Wine Spectator
Focused on pure, ripe plum and black cherry flavors, this is supple and structured, ending with a mix of baking spices, anise, mocha and black tea notes.
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.