Winemaker Notes
Easy, open style with luscious dark fruit shining throughout complemented by fine cocoa tannins.
Enjoy with pasta and pizza as well as barbecue.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Black-cherry and boysenberry flavors are concentrated yet zingy in this full-bodied, bright Pinot Noir. Soft in tannins and forward in fruit, it's a juicy wine elevated by hints of crushed earth, licorice and violet petal.
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.”
This sunny and relatively dry region served for many years as a German tourist mecca and was associated with low cost, cheerful wines. But since the 1980s, it has gained a reputation as one of Germany’s more innovative regions, which has led to increased international demand.