Winemaker Notes
Beautiful deep garnet red hue with bright red fruit notes of fresh raspberry and cherry mixed with nuances of orange tea, sandalwood, forest floor and tropical fruits. The palate is dense and velvety with a mouth-filling, deliciously satiating texture.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Savory aromas of bay leaf, juniper and rosemary play against the wild berry, sumac and dried mulberry aromas on the nose of this herbaceous bottling. The savory and herbal streak consumes the palate as well, where tart cranberry fruit is decorated with fennel pollen, oregano and sanguine flavors.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Estate fermented in concrete and was aged 16 months in 20% new French oak using 20% whole clusters. It has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and a nose of baked blackberries, black cherries, saddle leather and dust with meaty notes in the background plus garrigue and dried black tea leaves. Light to medium-bodied, it's very silky in the mouth with lots of juicy ripe fruit balanced by earthy notes, with very soft tannins to frame and juicy acidity, finishing long. An easy to drink, crowd-pleasing wine. 489 cases produced.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Pence Ranch Pinot Noir is on point as a beautiful, well-balanced wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine is feisty and bright. Pair its aromas and flavors of dried red fruit and earthy notes with slowly-braised stews. (Tasted: May 24, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Pinot Noir Estate offers more complexity as well as elegance. Blackberries, sour cherries, sappy flowers, and singed spice notes all give way to a layered, medium-bodied, elegant effort that has good acidity as well and overall balance. It should drink nicely for 7-8 years.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.