Loring Wine Company Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2016
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Wine
Spectator -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
A blend of some of Loring Wine Companys' favorite vineyards in Sta. Rita Hills. Big and bold like their Single Vineyard Designated Sta. Rita Hills Pinots, but with a bit softer mouth feel.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Powerful, focused and well-spiced, with flavors of dark cherry, plum tart and dried beef that lengthen out nicely. Pastry notes linger midpalate, leading to a finish of cola nut and chocolate nib accents. Drink now through 2022.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills comes from multiple sites in the Sta. Rita Hills and was brought up like all the Pinot Noirs here, being destemmed and aged in 15% new French oak. It offers rock solid, even exotic, notes of pomegranates, spice, dusty earth and dried orange rind theses give way to a medium-bodied, lively, beautifully balanced Pinot Noir that has bright acidity, solid mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It will keep for 7-8 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills has a medium ruby-purple color and gives expressive black cherry and mulberry scents with hints of black soil, Ceylon tea, cumin seed and anise. The medium-bodied palate is all black fruits and exotic spices, with a soft frame and lively line of freshness defining the finish.
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.