Winemaker Notes
Ruby red with floral and fresh fruit flavors. Tense and bright, it features cherry, redcurrant, and raspberry notes. A hint of mushrooms and subtle earthy tones follow, along with a vibrant juiciness that lengthens the palate.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A selection of three different plots, blended together with a uniform, 20% whole-cluster inclusion. The complex array of rich, red and dark cherries here is stunning with a smooth, juicy, vivid and velvety feel to the palate and a rich, dark plum and cherry finish. Oak is seamlessly integrated. As impressive as it is delicious.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I love the 2018 Lot 21 Pinot Noir, which has a cool climate profile, clean and somewhat austere with subtle aromas and a balanced palate with fine tannins. This matured in concrete, oak vat and used barriques, and this formula seems to work very well. It finishes dry and with a mineral, stony sensation.
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Decanter
Ripe nose with notes of red currant, dried dark summer fruit, tomato leaf and earthy notes. Soft and silky tannins on the palate, quite robust.
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.”
An officially recognized sub-zone in the southern part of the San Antonio Valley, the Leyda Valley was the original settlement of the wine pioneers who came to the area in the 1990s. They were in search of cooler and wetter growing conditions—as compared to more eastern, drier and often warmer locations.
Planting, which began only in the late 1990s, focused on Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot noir and some limited spots for Syrah. The area continues to receive well-earned accolades for wines of these varieties.