Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Juicy and earthy, this lovely appellation wine is voluptuous with a spicy thread. Blueberry and huckleberry fruit meld seamlessly into savory bites of tree bark and forest as the whole offers length and breadth.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The appellation 2015 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is deep ruby-colored and saw 10% stems and 10 months in 40% new Burgundy barrels. Vibrant black cherries, black tea, smoked earth, and floral notes give way to a beautifully textured, seamless, silky Pinot Noir that has notable purity and elegance.
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.