Winemaker Notes
This blend has emerged as the signature Pinot Noir from Peay Vineyards's estate vineyard incorporating most of the clones and blocks they grow. In a vintage like 2023, this has everything you could hope for from a Peay Pinot Noir; elegance, complexity, depth of flavor, bright aromatics, approachability.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Soft and delicate aromas of wild raspberries, cinnamon bark, pine needles, pencil shavings and potpourri. The palate is medium-bodied with finely integrated tannins and nervy acidity. Such great depth and structure, capturing the freshness and coolness of the vineyard.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir West Sonoma Coast has alluring aromas of cranberry, rooibos tea, mossy bark, mushrooms and bitters. The medium-bodied palate features concentrated, crunchy fruit and well-integrated new oak spice. It’s structured by grainy tannins and juicy acidity and has a long, flavorful finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir (West Sonoma Coast) is brilliant. Bold, racy and punchy, with terrific energy, the 2023 is a delight. Red/purplish fruit, lavender, rose petal, mint and orange peel are all front and center. Clean mineral notes frame the long, nuanced finish. Most of this fruit is from the Peay estate. This mid-weight Pinot has a lot to offer.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and filigreed in feel, with pinpoint damson plum and blood orange fruit that stays trim and pure through the mineral- and rooibos teatinged finish. Drink now through 2029.
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.