MacRostie Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir 2016
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir is pale ruby-purple in color and scented of freshly crushed raspberries, wild strawberries and cranberries with hints of violets, fertile loam, underbrush and truffles. Medium-bodied with wonderful elegance and a beautiful quiet intensity, it has a solid frame of finely grained tannins and great freshness, finishing long.
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Wine & Spirits
Meaty black-cherry flavors integrate with this wine’s smoky oak, the round, supple fruit winning out in the end. There’s an umami, ramen-broth character to the tannins, adding to the wine’s clean richness and nourishing feel. Steve MacRostie planted this vineyard in 1998, in the fog and wind of the Petaluma Gap.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a soft, delicate and lightly styled red from the appellation, earthy and quietly rich in caramelized oak and baked cherry. It has a nice balance of nutmeg and cola on the finish.
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Founded in 1987 by Sonoma County winemaking pioneer Steve MacRostie, MacRostie Winery & Vineyards has established itself as one of the Sonoma Coast's defining wineries. Since taking over as Winemaker in 2013, Heidi Bridenhagen has taken the vineyard program to new heights, partnering with legendary winegrowing families, including the Duttons, Sangiacomos, Martinellis and Bacigalupis, as well as crafting wines from MacRostie's own Thale's Estate, Nightwing and Wildcat Mountain vineyards. With breathtaking panoramic views from the MacRostie Estate House overlooking the Russian River Valley, the MacRostie team has set a new standard of hospitality excellence in the region.
WINEMAKING: The journey from land to bottle is organic, intuitive and more often felt than calculated. Rather than beginning with an end state in mind, Winemaker Heidi Bridenhagen let each vineyard’s grapes dictate what they want to become. The winemaking team has access to a remarkable level of vineyard diversity, enabling exploration of the entire Sonoma Coast and beyond, producing bright, balanced, and complex wines. Heidi oversees 150+ small fermentations each vintage, yielding a broad palette of flavors to work with at the blending table. Every bottle of MacRostie wine is an expression of time and place, crafted to accompany your special moments.
In July 2022, Wine Spectator Magazine named Heidi Bridenhagen as one of the “Next Generation of Chardonnay Stars.” Since Heidi was named winemaker, MacRostie has been recognized for making many of the finest wines in its history and has earned more than 450+ scores of 90 points or higher from major wine publications.
SUSTAINABILITY: Since 2015, MacRostie is one of less than 150 California wineries (out of more than 5,000) to hold the Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CCSW) accreditation. CCSW certification requires a process of “continuous improvement,” and we are constantly expanding and refining our sustainability program. MacRostie believes in creating wines that reflect the bounty of the Sonoma Coast, while protecting the region and its environment. Sustainability is a fundamental element in how MacRostie approaches growing and making wines and respects that the land carries through in every part of the process. MacRostie’s focus on sustainability can clearly be seen in many areas of operations, from water conservation to energy efficiency, composting and waste reduction.
COMMUNITY: MacRostie is a proud partner of No Kid Hungry and believes in No Kid Hungry’s mission to end childhood hunger in the United States by helping the millions of U.S. children struggling with hunger. As a proud long-term partner, MacRostie’s annual financial contribution provides the equivalent of 200,000 meals for children facing food insecurity.
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.