Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Elegant, silky and seamless, a smooth melange of red and black fruits, subtle spices and a particularly caressing texture on the medium body. So graceful, subtle and long, offering black cherries, sour cherries, black tea, star anise and a touch of toasted cedar.
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Vinous
The 2015 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard is superb. Bright and effusive on the palate with excellent depth, the 2015 has arrived at its pinnacle of expression. Crushed rose petal, cedar, cinnamon, new leather and pipe tobacco meld into a core of dark red-toned fruit. Suggestions of blood orange and pomegranate add an exotic flair. Whole clusters are evident but not overpowering. This is the best showing for the 2015 Pivot yet, a wine from a year marked by punishingly low yields.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.