Winemaker Notes
An incandescent deep ruby hue. A stunning bouquet of cassis, boysenberry, and violets leaps from the glass. Hints of graphite and minerals frame layers of blackberry and purple currant fruit. Harmonious and superbly balanced with a dramatic, mouthwatering finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard bursts from the glass with intense aromas of cranberry sauce, black raspberry, blood orange, iodine and mushrooms, becoming increasingly nuanced as it airs in the glass. The palate features powerful layers of crunchy fruit matched by vibrant acidity. It’s structured by finely astringent tannins reminiscent of black tea and has a very long, layered finish. It will be long lived in the cellar.
Rating: 96+ -
Wine Spectator
A showy style, with mulberry, cherry and blackberry fruit that glistens prettily, while sleek accents of anise, iris and apple wood add a streamlined feel through the streamlined finish, which shows nice underlying energy. Lovely.
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.