Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Silky and juicy with ripe black cherry and dense texture; lush and rich with deep flavors and mineral notes; intense and balanced.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
One of the best-drinking Pinot Noirs from the California countryside, the 2012 Reata Three County Pinot Noir has put all of its elements together well. Ripe fruit tempered with smoky oak make this wine a perfect for pairing with rotisserie chicken. Drinks well now. (Tasted: July 20, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
Internationally recognized for gorgeous, pure fruit combined with great elegance, California Pinot noir thrives among the state’s cooler, coastal zones. Characterized by eclectic flavors and aromas of strawberry, black cherry, plum and potpourri with notes of forest floor, mushroom or black tea, the best California Pinot noir boast a supple texture and good acidity, giving them the ability to improve with age.
Credited with the beginning of Pinot noir’s glory in California, two growers, Joe Rochioli and Joseph Swan in the late 1960s independently planted Pinot noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Today Sonoma County remains the leading producer of Pinot noir in the state, and Pinot noir is the leading red grape in the county, achieving its highest potential, in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Other coastal appellations where Pinot noir flourishes include Carneros, Anderson Valley and most of the Central Coast.