Winemaker Notes
The dense, dark color of this wine prepares us for the aromas coming from the glass: Mocha, milk chocolate and vanilla dance with black pepper and anise. The weighty entry is creamy and plush followed by clean acidity and persistent, balanced tannins. Cherry cordial and a bit of tangerine and rhubarb mingle on the lingering finish.
The Coopersmith Vineyard surrounding our winery is located in an area of the Russian River Valley known as Laguna Ridge, which overlooks the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Its famous soils — Gold Ridge and Sebastopol loam — are sandy and deep, creating excellent drainage, a necessary condition for growing an exceptional Pinot Noir. The vineyard, which is planted exclusively to the Merry Edwards Pinot Noir clone known as UCD37, produces grape clusters with tiny, concentrated berries. These lovely, little berries help us grow wines that are deep in color and rich in tannins, with a luscious texture and sumptuous mouthfeel.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very Russian River with dried dark fruit, some bark and orange peel with a minty note. Full-bodied with plenty of polished tannins and a focused finish. Same character on the palate as the nose. Cabernet lovers will love this. Solid. Better in two or three years. Try after 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ambitious and well polished, this oak-perfumed wine combines excellent fruit concentration with ample cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg notes from aging in new French barrels. Moderate tannins and a sense of saturation bode well for further improvement with age. Best from 2025–2032.
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Jeb Dunnuck
More in line with the Richaven in style, the 2021 Pinot Noir Coopersmith pours a dark red/purple color and opens to mineral-tinged aromas of graphite, blackberries, mocha, and violets. Medium to full-bodied, it’s plush with ripe tannins and long on the palate, with a rich core of fruit and a pleasing mineral accent on the finish. It’s quite plush and will benefit from another couple of years. Drink 2025-2035.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Coopersmith has layered aromas of cranberry sauce, blueberries, violet, aniseed and chocolate. The medium-bodied palate is softly chalky with generous layers of bright red fruit, and alluring, savory accents decorate the long finish.
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Wine & Spirits
This vineyard is adjacent to the winery, just west of the Laguna de Santa Rosa, where founder Merry Edwards and her husband, Ken Coopersmith, planted close to ten acres of pinot noir in 2001. Twenty years on, those vines gave a light, fresh wine that deepens and darkens, growing big, rich and smoky in the end. Fragrant woodland scents seem to follow the fruit maturing from green to brown to black.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and vibrant, with a delightful beam of mulberry puree and cherry pâte de fruit streaming through, laced liberally with iris and hibiscus notes and ending with a deliciously energetic encore of fruit on the lightly toasted, bramble-tinged finish. Drink now through 2030.
Merry Edwards Winery was founded in 1997 and produces critically acclaimed terroir-driven Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon Blanc using site-specific viticulture in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. Over two decades, Merry assembled a stellar collection of vineyards and with her meticulous attention to detail crafted Pinot Noirs of immense depth, elegant structure and exceptional longevity. Her Sauvignon Blanc is among the most sought after in the world.
Now a Certified California Sustainable Winery, the brand entered a new chapter after Merry’s retirement. Merry’s handpicked successor, Winemaker Heidi von der Mehden, and Winery President Nicole Carter have taken up exactly where Merry left off and will continue to make wines treasured by legions of Merry Edwards’ fans well into the future.
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.