Winemaker Notes
Delicate and fresh rose petal, orange pith, and white tea open the bouquet, unfolding into cherries, rose petals, orange pith, lychee, wet rock, and crushed raspberries. Coastal air brings more wild red fruits, ocean sea moss and a hint of salinity weave throughout. The frame and elegance are overtaken with fruit, flower and elements evoking the nearby, wild coast. The palate carries a vibrant clarity, with lingering notes of wild strawberries and coastal rock that extend into an incredibly long and refined finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of seaweed, fresh and dried strawberries, salt and white pepper. Medium- to full-bodied, showing persistence, intensity and structure, with firm, muscular tannins. Long, lightly chewy finish. Needs three to four years to soften, but a solid wine.
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Vinous
The 2024 Pinot Noir Sea Field is powerful and tightly wound. Dark-toned fruit, leather, cedar, spice, incense and dried rose petal infuse the 2024 with tons of complexity. This potent, deep Pinot Noir packs a tremendous punch. There's a lot of wine here, but this needs time to soften and for the mid-palate to emerge. There's a striking, crystalline purity here.
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.
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.”
On the far western edge of the larger Sonoma Coast appellation, the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA hugs right up against the Pacific coast. Vineyards, planted at rugged elevations between 920 to 1,800 feet, occupy only two percent of the total land in the AVA. Fort Ross-Seaview growers believe that the region boasts an ideal mix of sunshine, cool air and beneficial stress for producing high quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir.