Winemaker Notes
A stunning crimson colored pinot noir, Anna’s overflows with baked strawberries, red cassis, and fig on the nose, followed by newly fallen autumn leaves and nutmeg. This elegant wine shows cooked cranberries and brie rind, with a touch of foraged mushrooms.
The silky, soft textures and bright freshness makes Anna’s a wonderful complement to baked salmon, smoked trout, and pork tenderloin.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Pinot Noir Anna's Block is also brilliant, with crunchy black cherry and mulberry fruit as well as notes of iron, loamy earth, and darker herbs. This is a broader, more powerful, medium-bodied Pinot Noir offering beautiful tannins as well as outstanding balance. Fermented with 67% whole clusters and brought up in used barrels, it has tons of potential.
Rating: 95+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2020 Pinot Noir Anna's Block offers layered fruit and earth aromas: cranberry sauce and blackberry preserves feature accents of aniseed, mossy bark, forest floor and mushrooms. The palate is medium-bodied and light on its feet with bright acidity and a gently chalky frame and finishes with concentrated flavors and loads of spicy accents. This bright, elegant Pinot is ideal for the table. Best After 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
Bold aromas of black cherry, dark plum and woody herb show on the nose of this block-designated bottling. The palate pops with acidic energy that bisects the dark fruit and rich woodspice flavors.
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.