Winemaker Notes
This wine comes from the best blocks of the Occidental Station Vineyard, which had been the source of the Cuvée Catherine bottling for nearly fifteen years. The site was planted by Steve Kistler in 1999.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard has incredibly pure, soaring scents of wild cherry, blackberry and blueberry, and as it opens in the glass, it reveals detailed nuances of aniseed, mushrooms, forest floor and juniper. The palate is just as layered, offering tremendously concentrated, floral flavors. It has a seamless frame of powdery tannins and shimmery acidity and a wonderfully long, layered finish. Rating: 97+
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Wine Spectator
This is super sleek in feel, with beautiful hibiscus, damson plum and black cherry puree notes that race through, flanked with a mouthwatering rooibos tea note and backed by a long minerally echo on the finish. A very pure, precise wine.
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.