Winemaker Notes
This Pinot Noir will pair beautifully with a wide variety of foods, including salmon, lamb, duck, quail and rabbit.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Juicy hibiscus and pomegranate fruits converge with dried fennel stalks, purple flowers and a flinty smoke character on the fresh and inviting nose of this bottling from Rick Longoria's own vineyard. The energy that emerges on the sip is amazingly persistent, which guarantees long aging, presenting flavors of raspberry, pomegranate, dried sagebrush and black licorice. Drink 2017–2028.
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Wine & Spirits
Rick Longoria planted Fe Ciega in 1998 on a south-facing mesa above the usually dry Santa Ynez River, where the soil is clay loam with fractured shale. His 2013 feels promising but jittery at first, the fruit appetizingly floral, the tannins sharp and astringent. As it takes on air it releases its tight, locked-up energy in a beam of dark yet fresh fruit that’s brisk and propulsive, lasting on the taut chewiness of perfectly ripe fruit skin and aromas of blackberry and violet. Age it for a few more years or decant it for roast duck.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A ripe, fruit loaded effort that gives up tons of black fruits, ground herbs, spice and licorice, the 2013 Pinot Noir Fe Ciega Vineyard (destemmed and aged 14 months in 38% new French oak) is medium-bodied, supple, rounded and a touch chunky on the palate. It has some oak to integrate, yet it’s nicely concentrated and textured, and has plenty to like. It should be better in a year or so and keep through 2023.
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.