Winemaker Notes
Intense raspberry, wild strawberry, forest floor and earthy notes (graphite), very rich and complex with a leathery lingering finish. Will age gracefully for over a decade.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Pinot Noir En Famille is the most fresh, lively Pinot Noir in the lineup and offers a more medium to full-bodied, vibrant style to go with notes of spiced mulberries, black cherries, smoked earth, graphite, sappy flowers, and forest, piney nuances. With terrific balance solid mid-palate depth, and both building tannins and acidity, it needs 2-3 years of bottle age and will drink well for a decade. While the other two Pinot Noirs are fermented in a mix of puncheons and stainless steel, the En Famille is fermented all in puncheons.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The En Famille Pinot Noir comes from a vineyard planted in 1990 to Goldridge soils, right next door to the “Coteaux Nobles” vineyard in Fort Ross-Seaview. Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2018 Pinot Noir En Famille sashays out of the glass with gorgeous scents of cranberry jelly, pomegranate and raspberry preserves, leading to suggestions of underbrush, dried lavender and orange peel. The full-bodied palate is densely laden with red fruit preserves and earthy layers, supported by very finely grained tannins and tons of freshness, finishing with a refreshing lift.
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.