Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Riviera has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and opens with notes of dried black tea leaves, loamy soil, blackberries and red and black cherries with notions of potpourri, cinnamon stick and clove. Light to medium-bodied, it has a good core of earthy black fruits with firm, grainy tannins and good freshness, finishing long with black tea notes. 7,900 cases produced.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe, with mocha and espresso accents to the concentrated dark fruit and Asian spice flavors. Dark chocolate notes lengthen out nicely on the finish. Drink now through 2022.
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.