Winemaker Notes
This Pinot Noir would pair well with soft cheeses or grilled chicken. Serve with bruschetta with goat cheese, apricots, and slivered almonds as a nice appetizer. Or pair with a grilled chicken flatbread topped with fresh mozzarella, arugula, and a splash of extra virgin olive oil.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Tar, leather, blackberry and basil: that’s a complex start for a value-driven Pinot Noir, but this one has stepped up its game. The rustic middle is crowded with deep rich earth and minerals and the flavors endure through the finish.
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.