Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Labor intensive production for this smalllot Pinot includes hand-picking and handsorting twice, with bâtonnage weekly for three months and aged sur lie in French oak for 16 months. Planted in the coolest part of the Sonoma Coast, the resulting creamy plum pudding, pomegranate-kissed bold-bodied wine is quiet and graceful. It has a heroic presence on the mouth – earthy and black peppered and so pretty.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Coming from a vineyard planted in 2008, located just past Sebastopol on the Sonoma Coast, the 2012 Mardikian Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir has a pale to medium ruby color and an earthy, meaty, gamey nose over a core of dried cranberries, potpourri and kirsch. Medium to full-bodied, it is showing some nice bits of evolution in the mouth, giving savory flavors and pleasant yeasty/meatiness, plus a grainy backbone and long, lively finish.
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.