Winemaker Notes
Red Car's Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is a carefully crafted blend of their most notable, cool-climate vineyards in Fort Ross and Occidental. Cool temperatures and close proximity to the Pacific Ocean in each of these remote coastal locations, lend to naturally low alcohol and high acidity in the wines.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Sunny and bright, this wine has a cool fruit tone, like lingonberries, along with lasting red-cherry fruit-skin tannins. It’s warm and spicy in the end, where the tannins would pick up on bay leaf and allspice in a rich fish stew.
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Wine Spectator
This has both plump and racy elements, with a core of kirsch and plum fruit laced with light bramble and savory threads, ending with a juicy echo of anise and fruit. Drink now
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Jeb Dunnuck
Dark cherries, mulberries, dried herbs, and spice as well as a kiss of marine-like salinity emerge from the 2019 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, a medium-bodied, juicy, vibrant Pinot Noir with terrific overall balance and a clean, classy style. It’s slightly mid-weight, yet I still suspect it should evolve for a good 5-6 years.
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.