Winemaker Notes
This Pinot Noir would pair well with a lighter dish such as roasted chicken served over mashed potatoes with rosemary au jus. It would also pair wonderfully with pan-roasted vegetables over brown rice topped with shaved pecorino cheese.
Blend: 82% Pinot Noir, 10% Barbera, 5% Valdigue, 3% Zinfandel
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: "Cocktail style red wine," is a phrase that has gained prominence over the last decade or so, and it is starting to be applied to Pinot Noirs. The 2016 Leese-Fitch a blend of four grape varieties—82% Pinot Noir, 10% Barbera, 5% Valdiguié, 3% Zinfandel—is a delicious and easy drinking red wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine is deep in color and exhibits an explosion of ripe fruit aromas and flavors. Enjoy its smooth finish as a prelude to dinner. (Tasted: June 26, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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.