Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is pale ruby colored, with warm cherries, red currants, dried herbs and a hint of loam. Medium-bodied and elegant, this is a great expression of Pinot Noir at a modest price, with nice length and fine-grained tannins.
-
Wine & Spirits
A blend from seven vineyards, including Steve MacRostie’s Wildcat Mountain in the Petaluma Gap and four sites in Russian River Valley, this has warm notes of cherry pie and cedary scents of oak. Firm, fine-textured tannins keep the wine savory and spicy. Focused on oak, this should be best in a year or two.
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.