Winemaker Notes
The crisp acidity and minerality from this cool site are quite apparent in the wine and picking optimally ripe fruit resulted in a perfectly balanced wine. The cuvaison (time on skins) extended for a full three weeks, resulting in a more structured Pinot than many current California examples: this is a Pinot which will reward cellaring.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
From an ocean-view vineyard with consistently exceptional fruit, this wine represents its provenance with class and elegance, delivering crisp cranberry and cherry around an ethereal earthiness and deft seasoning of herb. Aged in barrels previously used for Chardonnay from the same vineyard, it offers restrained oak that still provides structure.
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.