Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a glorious red with density and compressed character to the mouthfeel. Pure and very focused with crushed berries, orange peel and sandalwood. Edgeless. Exciting. Tight, yet so characterful and great. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from a vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, the 2018 Pinot Noir Goldrock Estate reveals a deeper ruby hue to go with ripe, sexy notes of black raspberries, toasted spices, orange blossom, and violets. It's a rich, sweetly fruited, plush beauty with ripe tannins, beautiful overall balance, and great finish. This gorgeous wine shows how good 2018 was for Pinot Noir. It’s one of the richer, more powerful efforts from the Sonoma Coast.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and contoured, with ferrous notes to the well-structured red currant, dark cherry and dried blackberry flavors. Supple minerality shows on the spicy finish, where light creamy accents linger. Best from 2021 through 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Goldrock Estate has a medium ruby-purple color and is shy to begin, revealing hints of fresh cranberries, tar, blackberries, blood orange and oolong tea leaves. The medium-bodied palate is packed with juicy fruits, wrapped in a fresh, silky frame and finishing very long.
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.