Winemaker Notes
The 2019 County Cuvée Pinot Noir is a blend of six vineyards in three different California grape-growing counties. Rich dark fruit with earth on the nose. Great palate weight and soft supple tannins. Notes of bright red fruits, earth/leather/flint, and crushed herbs. A long finish of toasty oak, vanilla, and dried cranberry.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lovely aromas of sliced strawberry, ripe raspberry and rooibos tea. Medium-bodied with soft tannins. Red fruit and berries are complimented by fresh herbs and wet stone.
Internationally recognized for gorgeous, pure fruit combined with great elegance, California Pinot noir thrives among the state’s cooler, coastal zones. Characterized by eclectic flavors and aromas of strawberry, black cherry, plum and potpourri with notes of forest floor, mushroom or black tea, the best California Pinot noir boast a supple texture and good acidity, giving them the ability to improve with age.
Credited with the beginning of Pinot noir’s glory in California, two growers, Joe Rochioli and Joseph Swan in the late 1960s independently planted Pinot noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Today Sonoma County remains the leading producer of Pinot noir in the state, and Pinot noir is the leading red grape in the county, achieving its highest potential, in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Other coastal appellations where Pinot noir flourishes include Carneros, Anderson Valley and most of the Central Coast.