La Follette Los Primeros Pinot Noir 2017
Winemaker Notes
The 2017 La Follette Los Primeros Pinot Noir is an approachable wine with an appealing dark garnet color that immediately implies depth. The nose is upfront – fresh and bright. Flavors and aromas include stewed fruit, cherry cola, allspice, nutmeg, dried orange rind, and enoki mushrooms. The palate evolves to mild savory herbal notes with a faint kiss of toasty oak and mild earthiness. Perfect with Portobello mushrooms, olive bread, wild salmon, seared duck breast, or goat cheese. The wine will continue to develop in the next two or three years.
Critical Acclaim
All Vintages
Internationally recognized for gorgeous, pure fruit combined with great elegance, California Pinot noir thrives among the state’s cooler, coastal zones. Characterized by eclectic flavors and aromas of strawberry, black cherry, plum and potpourri with notes of forest floor, mushroom or black tea, the best California Pinot noir boast a supple texture and good acidity, giving them the ability to improve with age.
Credited with the beginning of Pinot noir’s glory in California, two growers, Joe Rochioli and Joseph Swan in the late 1960s independently planted Pinot noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Today Sonoma County remains the leading producer of Pinot noir in the state, and Pinot noir is the leading red grape in the county, achieving its highest potential, in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Other coastal appellations where Pinot noir flourishes include Carneros, Anderson Valley and most of the Central Coast.