Winemaker Notes
Aromas of black cherry, black tea, and bramble along with hints of juniper berry and red currant with slight notes of cedar, lavender, clove, and orange zest. On the palate the wine displays a fresh entry and bright mid-palate with soft velvety tannins that all combine to create a balanced and long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
The 2023 Pinot Noir is sourced from the Sonoma Coast, with fruit from Durell, Sunchase, and Huichica vineyards. The fruit is destemmed, with a small percentage of stems layered into stainless steel, undergoing a native fermentation, and then aged for 10 months in approximately 40% new French oak. Exhibiting more elegance and red-fruited character compared to the 2022 vintage, the wine reveals intriguing notes of smoked paprika, blood orange, and apricot, complemented by grapefruit zest and rich cedar spices. A hint of clove and incense adds depth and complexity. Medium-bodied with pure fruit character, it features fine-grained, velvety tannins that carry through to a long finish highlighted by espresso bean and cocoa nib notes. This vintage showcases a harmonious balance of freshness, texture, and complexity, making it an impressive expression of Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.
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James Suckling
A spicy, elegant and firmly structured wine that shows the great balance of the 2023 vintage, along with abundant leafy, smoky and cedary aromas and tasty red cherries and sour cherries in the flavors. Full-bodied, moderately tannic and nicely complex.
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Wine Spectator
Stylish and focused, with a steady beam of raspberry and blood orange pâte de fruit supported by red tea, wood spice and sassafras hints. The finish is juicy but restrained. Drink now through 2031.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is scented of pomegranate, cranberry, dried herbs and earth. The medium-bodied palate is more open at this early stage, offering concentrated, floral-laced flavors. It’s framed by grainy tannins and bright acidity and has a long, latent finish. It will benefit from some time in a decanter.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.