Winemaker Notes
Aromas of blackberry, orange zest, and forest floor are complemented by flavors of black currant, plum, and hints of anise. On the palate, the wine offers fine grained tannins and a core of fresh acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple in the glass, the 2017 Pinot Noir Sea Lift, aged nine months in 35% new French oak, is scented of blueberries, cinnamon toast, crushed red cherries and boysenberry with fragrant earth, potpourri and tobacco touches. The palate is medium-bodied, silky and perfumed with lightly chalky tannins and seamless freshness on the long, spicy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Inviting red fruit and a sharpness of orange peel open the way to a juicy and supple midpalate of robust richness and weight that works well within the integrated tannin and oak. With underlying acidity, it remains fresh on the palate within its hearty fruit and layered texture.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine’s bold, succulent black-cherry flavor has the energy to override its oak aging, layering that tight fruit ripeness over sweet touches of caramel and almond. This is clean and spicy in its flavor detail, its acidity gentled by supple sweetness even as it keeps moving the flavors forward. Delicious with tea-smoked duck.
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Wine Spectator
Well-structured, with concentrated red fruit and berry flavors, supported by a vibrant lattice of acidity and tannins. Minerally midpalate, featuring savory richness that extends on the vibrantly spiced finish. Drink now through 2025.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Destemmed and aged 9 months in 35% new French oak, the 2017 Pinot Noir Sealift has a spicy, powerful bouquet of red and black fruits, pine forest, iodine, violets, and crushed rocks. This carries to a medium-bodied, juicy Pinot Noir with a firm, focused texture, ripe tannins, and a good finish. It's classic 2017 with its more savory, firm style, but it’s beautifully balanced and will evolve for at least 7-8 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.