Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Fresh cranberries, raspberries, blue flowers and soil on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with sleek tannins and crisp acidity. Juicy and energetic. Drink or hold.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Nicely ripened without tipping to extremes and very precise in its expression of varietal cherries with a hint of raspberries and wellmeasured oak in support, the Ram’s Gate Cellar Note Pinot shows fine fruity depth and keen continuity from its slightly fleshy start to its lengthy, insistently focused finish. Though it is balanced to age comfortably over the next half-decade, it is a very tasty, welcoming wine now that will make a toothsome companion to pork and veal dishes of all sorts
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.