Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2009 was a warmer vintage and “quite aromatic on release,” Andy Peay recalls. The 2009 Estate Pinot Noir Scallop Shelf is expressive, complex and in a beautiful spot for drinking. It has a pale garnet color and soaring aromas of dried berry fruit and orange peel, tea and tobacco leaves, leather and saline. The medium-bodied palate is concentrated and complex with both fruit and tertiary character. While its tannins have softened, it offers bright acidity, and it has a long, earth-laced finish.
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.