Winemaker Notes
Perfectly poised fruit/acid balance make this incredibly food-versatile. It is a wonderful accompaniment to roast chicken and grilled salmon, as well as almost any duck, beef or lamb preparation.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Light raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate and strawberry fruit tones greet the nose on this bottling. The aromas then offer a brick-like minerality bolstered by chiseled slate and wet river stones. Flavors are also rocky and rusty, with lots of crushed gravel and turned earth giving complexity to the cran-pomegranate fruit.
-
Connoisseurs' Guide
It may not be cheap, but this is a Pinot that outperforms at the price. It leads with a moderately deep, nicely composed nose of ripe cherries, raspberries and dried roses with a well-considered dollop of sweet oak, and its rich and continuous flavors build on its very handsome aromatic beginnings. Although moderately full-bodied, it is so lissome and lithe that it never seems in the least bit heavy, and, as free of angles and edges as it may be, it nonetheless has the structural inner bones to improve for a few years and then keep for a good many more.
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.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.