Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Pinot Noir is beautiful and shows classic raspberry, black cherry, toasted spice, underbrush and sappy flower-like aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, taut, elegant, and balanced with solid acidity as well as texture, it finishes with terrific clarity and length. This distinctive, classy Pinot Noir needs 2-3 years of bottle age and will drink nicely through 2025.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Wild and intriguing from the first sniff, the 2013 Mindego Ridge Pinot Noir comes across as a wine that is excellent and unique—not Burgundy, not the Carneros, Sta. Rita Hills, Russian River Valley or other more known areas—this is simply delicious on its own terms. The wine shows red, blue and black fruit flavors and its active textures offer a balance of purity that is often missed by other producers. The winery says, "Our Pinot Noir is made in small lots by non-interventionist methods—hand sorting, native yeast fermentation, hand punch downs." Beginning to drink nicely now. (Tasted: August 12, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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 rugged and topographically diverse cool-climate appellation with a rich history, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA stretches from Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, to the northern border of Monterey County. Elevations range from 800 feet to upwards of 3,000 and microclimates vary substantially depending on which side of the mountains the vineyards lie; cool ocean winds and fog play an important role here. This can be a challenging region in which to grow grapes, but it is well worth the effort. Santa Cruz Mountains wines are noted for balanced acidity levels, often showing great aging potential. Wine has been made here since the 1800s, most notably from the legendary Ridge Vineyards, whose Monte Bello vineyard garners international admiration.
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the stars of this region, while Merlot and Zinfandel also perform quite well. Organic and sustainable vineyard practices are becoming increasingly common.