Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A barrel selection mostly from a slightly warmer terroir, the 2016 Pinot Noir Clos du Ciel is an incredible, seamless, elegant Pinot Noir that offers extraordinary notes of caramelized cherries, framboise, strawberries, flowers, and toasted bread. Incredibly seamless, elegant, multi-faceted, and layered, with ultra-fine tannin, no hard edges, and a gorgeous finish. It’s hard to pick a favorite out of these Pinot Noirs from Peter Michael as it’s like splitting hairs, yet this is a tiny notch up and hits every sweet spot.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Clos du Ciel is medium to deep ruby-purple colored with a gorgeous nose of Black Forest cake, kirsch and raspberry preserves with nuances of exotic spices, incense, potpourri and bouquet garni. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with juicy berry layers with lovely plush tannins, finishing very long and spicy. 600 cases produced.
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.