Winemaker Notes
A single vineyard, single clone (Dijon Clone 943) Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Maritana Vineyards focus their winemaking on creating wines with multidimensional aromas and refreshing textures. The 2020 vintage although challenging yielded some fantastic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from Russian River Valley. This wine - elegant and perfumed aromas of raspberry and cola - with an assortment of spice notes, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg leading into a lovely floral/berry like finish. This is their most intense and tannic Pinot Noir.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very dark and brooding wine with ripe strawberry, boysenberry, white pepper and green tobacco aromas and flavors, that follow through to a full body with chewy tannins that are racy and fine-grained, with lots of length at the finish. Complex and sophisticated with presence and spices at the end. Drink after 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Pinot Noir Martaella was matured for 15 months in 80% new oak. It is bursting with alluring raspberry and strawberry jam, blood orange, tea leaf and conifer aromas. The medium-bodied palate is chalky and fresh with spicy, botanical fruit and a long, spicy finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
There is a darker profile to the 2020 Pinot Noir Martaella Vineyard, noted by violets, cedar, and black raspberry, and it was aged for 15 months in 75% new French oak. It is medium-bodied, with a touch more warmth and structure, and offers notes of baking spice, wooded earth, and dried cherr
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.