Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Chene Vineyard Pinot Noir has notes of raspberries, violets and dried rose petals with chalky tannin.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made entirely with whole clusters, the medium ruby colored 2021 Pinot Noir Chene Vineyard features pure aromas of cranberries, black raspberries, tobacco, oolong tea leaves, dried herbs and a hint of tangerine. The medium-bodied palate is chalky and fresh with a deep core of spicy red fruit and a long, layered finish. Yum! Best After 2022
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Wine Enthusiast
Winemaker Gina Giugni began implementing biodynamic methods in this vineyard in 2018 and the wines now show a compelling vibrancy, promising much excitement to come. Fresh black raspberry, light lavender and anise aromas are intense yet delicate on the nose. The palate is lively, with black raspberry and floral flavors that blossom like a bouquet on the tongue.
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Wine & Spirits
From a steep, organically farmed vineyard set on seabed and sand, this is lean and diaphanous when first poured, with a scent of flowers. The cherry flavors have a tart, kombucha-like pucker of acidity that would pair well with something rich, like duck rillettes.
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.”
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.