Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Iron, salt, umami and dried strawberries with some rose stem. Full-bodied with a firmness and brightness. Chewy at the end. A solid and rather agile pinot that pivots and shows energy. So delicious but will age for a long time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Freestone Occidental Bodega, made with 100% whole cluster, has a pale to medium ruby color and opens very spicy with amaro, forest floor, bergamot and exotic spices with a streak of stone and saline and a core of Bing cherries, rhubarb, blackberries and cranberries. It's light to medium-bodied and delightfully loaded with savory, spiced fruits. It has a sturdy frame and well-woven freshness, finishing long and layered.
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Wine Spectator
Aromatic, with forest floor and pine bough accents to the fresh-crushed red fruit and spice flavors. Pure and minerally on the crisp finish, showing hints of sea salt. Drink now through 2023.
As winemakers and farmers, Carlo and Dante attribute a great deal of what they have learned to their grandfather Robert and father Tim, both whom influenced them from a young age.
Carlo and Dante’s father Tim was a pioneer for California Pinot Noir in the early 1970s and has always had a tremendous regard for the great wines of Burgundy. To this day his Pinot Noirs from the 1970s are showing incredibly well. Carlo and Dante credit their father’s passion for Pinot Noir as the early inspiration that got them excited at a young age.
Dante studied abroad in Switzerland at the Webster University in Genève as well at UC Davis in California. Carlo studied in France at the University of Aix-en-Provence and in Italy at the University of Milan. After their formal studies were complete Carlo and Dante continued their educational work with the winemaking team lead by their father Tim Mondavi at Robert Mondavi Winery and Opus One.
When Robert Mondavi Winery was sold in 2004, the brothers joined their father Tim, Aunt-Marcia and grandfather Robert as they founded Continuum in 2005.
In 2013 Carlo and Dante founded RAEN winery with the goal to produce world class Pinot Noir on the western hills of the Sonoma Coast. RAEN currently focuses on making three Pinot Noirs, from three unique sites on the Sonoma Coast.
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.