Winemaker Notes
Light garnet in color, vivid aromatics of rhubarb, tangerine zest, fresh cranberry and juniper are immediately apparent while intriguing notes of eucalyptus, chanterelle mushroom, plum skin and green tea linger in the background. Focused and precise, with velvety tannins that frame the wines plush core as well as the lengthy and cohesive finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Red cherry, dried rose petal and cinnamon-spiced melon show on the unique and alluring nose in this bottling. The palate offers a complex blend of earth and fruit, combining sour cherry with wild thyme, red flowers and dried sage.
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Wine & Spirits
Open this bottle and you’ll find a lot of smoky oak, but there’s good material underneath, apparent in the undertow of fruit. Give it air and you’ll have a cool, rich pinot, its tannins a contrast of gritty and plush. Pour it with braised duck.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills is the largest production cuvée of the estate and it's a year in, year out value. The 2015 (this was also reviewed last year) is a spice-filled, cherry, and forest floor-scented effort that has medium-bodied depth and richness, the focused style of the vintage, and a good finish. It's showing slightly better than this time last year and should age gracefully going forward.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Pinot Noir Estate reveals aromas of red cherry, fresh herbs and strawberry preserve, followed by a supple, medium-bodied, succulent palate with a saline, savory finish. Fermented with some whole bunches and matured in neutral barrels, this is very much in the Melville style to which readers will have become accustomed.
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.