Winemaker Notes
This wine is strutting a lot on release, but there's an underlying nerviness that lends well to aging. Ojai suggests decanting in the near-term and enjoying it with herby poultry dishes and roasted vegetables. Or age in a cool cellar for a decade; it will hit that in stride.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Ripe redcurrants, spice, savory herbs, and pressed flower notes, as well as that classic marine-like salinity of the region, emerge from the 2022 Pinot Noir Kessler Haak Vineyard, a beautifully pure, medium-bodied Pinot Noir offering ripe, integrated tannins, terrific overall balance, and a great finish. I love it today, and it's going to evolve nicely over the coming decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Kessler Haak Vineyard is a classically dark, brooding yet lifted expression of this pocket of the Sta. Rita Hills. The nose combines nuanced dark fruit aromas, exotic spices and dried tobacco flourishes. The palate is silky and energetic yet deep and layered, finishing with impressive saturation, weightless, earth-tinged decadence and fine yet grippy tannins layered with streaks of saline lift.
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 superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.