Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Zio Tony Ranch has pure, layered aromas of cranberry sauce, red cherries and orange peel plus nuances of rosewater, tea leaves and earth. The light-bodied palate is soft, supple and refreshing with delicate, floral fruit, and it has an ethereal, spicy finish.
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Tasting Panel
Spiced red tea, pomegranate, and clove-kissed plum thread through this juicy beauty. An exquisite mouthfeel is augmented by underbrush, sassafras, and black cherry. 95
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Wine Spectator
A fruit-driven red, with a large core of mulberry, blackberry and black cherry fruit flavors that fan out steadily, picking up light anise, fruitcake and incense notes along the way. Showy, but with a beautifully subtle mineral thread as well, which vibrates precisely just underneath the encore of fruit on the lengthy finish.
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.