Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Vibrant, perfumed aromas of cherries, citrus peel, cinnamon bark and dried herbs. The medium-bodied palate has bright acidity and crunchy tannins, showing rhubarb, cranberries and river stones. So pure and fresh with a tightly wound tension.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is a delightful appellation wine. It’s fresh with aromas of wild strawberries, bright spice, orange zest, and bright red flowers. It spent 12 months in barrel before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The palate has an approachable feel and a touch more depth, with ripe tannins, a lovely feel, and an elegant finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast) is a terrific introduction to the wines that also bodes well for the vineyard-designates that will be released next year. Aromatic, translucent and deep, the Sonoma Coast bottling is super-finessed and shows just how good this vintage can be. Lavender, rose petal, sweet pipe tobacco and cedar build in the glass. Shorter time in barrel kept the flavors particularly vibrant.
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Wine Spectator
A pretty red, offering streamlined notes of blood orange and raspberry coulis dotted with savory and infused gently with red tea.
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.