Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
The magnificent aromas are centered on spicy, floral black cherry and raspberry, with a dash of porcini and toasty oak. The texture is seamless, gliding along gracefully, showing subtle hints of maturity and nuance.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noirs will undoubtedly shut down with another year of bottle age, but for now, the 2007 Pinot Noir Three Sisters Vineyard reveals an intense fruit presence. Lots of plum sauce, fig, black cherry, Asian spice and floral notes make for a complex wine. In the mouth, it is medium to full-bodied with an unexpectedly high acid profile, which gives the wine a more compressed mouthfeel.
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.