Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
A real wine lovers' wine, the rustic and pure 2013 McPhail Mardikian Vineyard Pinot Noir has it all—ripe red fruit, dried herbs, leather, licorice, forest floor, dead game bird. These are the nuances that Pinot Noir enthusiasts live for and seldom find. Pair this wine with wild turkey. (Tasted: October 4, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
An estate-grown wine in its second vintage, this comes from the cooler-climate hills of the coast. This plush wine is dark brown in color and brimming in stinky earth—a rich, funky and concentrated expression that's herbal, spicy and shy in raspberry fruit
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.