Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
The fragrant raspberry and blackberry aromas are riveting, with floral notes. Intense and concentrated, yet delicate and lively, with cleansing acidity and a sharp focus on the beam of ripe berry flavors. Ends with gentle tannins and a lingering finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2002 Pinot Noir Three Sisters’ fragrant nose of flowers interwoven with blueberries and forest floor is reminiscent of a grand cru from the Cotes de Nuit. The wine has fabulous fruit on the attack, beautiful structure, medium to full body, and a purity and almost ethereal lightness of being despite significant richness and intensity.
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.