Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Intense, ripe and fleshy, with rich currant, black cherry and wild berry fruit that's deep and well-centered, with hints of anise and cedar. Ends with a fruity aftertaste that's complex and focused.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From the cold Green Valley, the 2005 Pinot Noir Bondi Home Ranch Water Trough Vineyard shows loads of tannin, a greener, cooler character, with plenty of pomegranate, sour cherry, menthol, and forest floor. It tastes more like a Loire Valley wine than the typical Pinot Noir from Sonoma. Nevertheless, it has fine ripeness, medium body, and good underlying acidity.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Situated on the foggier and colder western edge of the Russian River Valley, almost abutting the Sonoma Coast appellation, Green Valley is one of California’s most reputable Chardonnay and Pinot noir producing regions. It is also a wonderful source of sparkling wines made from these varieties.
Goldridge soils abound throughout the Green Valley appellation. This fine, dark, sandy loam and fractured sandstone is derived from the remains of ancient inland seabeds dating back three to five million years. It is valuable for high quality grape growing because of its excellent drainage and low fertility.