Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Delicious, earthy, complex and spicy nuances with game and a very striking, black-cherry and gently arboreal edge to the fruit. The palate has expressive, vibrant and succulent, deeply layered, ripe cherries and plums. Packed with flavor, long, majestic tannins and an effortlessly powerful, long, fruit-soaked finish. Such concentration here. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
The 2016 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard is the most savory of the first three Pinots in this tasting. Dried herbs, leather, tobacco and incense build nicely, buffered by brisk acids that confer freshness. Saline notes reappear to punctuate the finish. Whole clusters are 20%, the lowest of the Littorai Pinots in 2016. At nearly ten years of age, the 2016 remains quite vibrant.
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.