Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A cool site in the Sonoma Coast AVA in northern California, the 2013 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard (16 months in one-third new French oak) has a Burgundian feel in its rose petal, sappy underbrush, currant and black raspberry-scented bouquet. Medium-bodied, seamless and exceedingly pretty and elegant.
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Wine Enthusiast
Brawny in flavorful black cherry, this well-crafted wine from a prime vineyard is plush with cinnamon and structured tannins. Floral in aroma, it tastes of strawberry and black cherry, with a seasoning of black pepper on the finish.
Cellar Selection
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.