Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
credible richness, density and concentration, with a tight backbone. The core black cherry, wild berry and raspberry are ripe and effusive, with hints of rose petal and cranberry, and touches of hazelnut and nutmeg. The finish sails on, returning to the rich flavor themes that are woven together in a tight yet seamless and persistent manner.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fragrant aromas of damp earth, fresh mushrooms, gravel, anise, plums, and cherries emerge from the 2001 Pinot Noir Blue Slide Ridge, which reveals this vineyard’s distinctive perfume and singular quality. An atypical notion of herbaceousness is also present.
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.