Winemaker Notes
In the far northwest corner of the Sonoma Coast appellation, near the town of Annapolis, the vineyard sits just five miles from the Pacific Ocean, and provides a poignant setting for producing pinot noir with elegance, great precision, and intensity.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another brilliant wine as well as possibly one of my favorite vintages for this cuvée, the 2019 Pinot Noir Goldrock Estate (all from the Sonoma Coast) reveals a deeper ruby/purple color to go with a captivating bouquet of black raspberries, redcurrants, scorched earth, graphite, and just a beautiful sense of crushed rock-like minerality. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it’s flawlessly balanced and has a great mid-palate, building, ripe, polished tannins, and a juicy sense of acidity that keeps you salivating on the finish. This is another riveting 2019 Pinot Noir from Paul Hobbs that can be enjoyed any time over the coming decade.
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James Suckling
A fresh, floral nose with ripe red cherries, strawberries and vanilla. Full body and rounded, velvety tannins with a cinematic level of vibrancy and technicolor saturation. Mineral-driven, forward-moving energy that completely takes hold of you. Just so alive and exciting. Fantastic. Best after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2019 Pinot Noir Goldrock Estate unfolds slowly to blueberries, cranberries, tangerine peel, forest floor and mushroom, plus loads of spices in the undercurrent. Medium-bodied, it offers fragrant fruits, an abundance of finely grained tannins, seamless acidity and a long, perfumed finish.
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Wine Spectator
Intense and pure-tasting, this complex red is filled with crunchy acidity to the well-knit slate, red berry and wild spice flavors. The lively finish is
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.