Winemaker Notes
Dark garnet in color, this complex and alluring wine displays a nose layered with aromas of red cherry and cinnamon spice. On the palate sophisticated elements of cocoa and leather combine with the red berry fruit and spice, giving this wine a strong mid-palate and a lengthy finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of cherry, lemon grass and orange peel. Medium to full body, tangy fruit and acidity combination and fresh finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Earthy in anise and blue fruit, this wine is inexplicably crisp and plush at the same time, showing the allure of the variety in its rose petal aromas. Medium bodied and velvety, it follows through in cassis and pomegranate flavors.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby in color, the 2014 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir gives notes of Bing cherries, cranberries and red roses with hints of wild thyme, underbrush and black pepper. Medium-bodied, understated and with a pleasantly earthy edge to the palate, it gives a good intensity of red berry flavors and firm grainy tannins, finishing long.
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.