Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A gorgeous Pinot that is striking from the get-go. Ripe and sublime, with sweet plum, blueberry and wild berry flavors that are fresh and vivid, this is at once intense and persistent, yet also graceful and refined.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The brilliant 2007 Pinot Noir Blue Slide Ridge reveals a DRC character with notes of forest floor, blueberries and raspberries. Riper and richer than anything but the greatest vintages of DRC (i.e., 1990, 1999, 2003 and 2005), it reveals sweet, broad flavors, ripe tannins and a long, layered finish. It should drink well for at least a decade.
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.