Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A pinot noir with sweet tobacco and strawberry aromas and flavors. Medium body, tight tannins and a fresh finish. Linear and fine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Obviously, the 2017 Ritual Pinot Noir feels ripe, the product of a warm and dry year. It is quite expressive and open, quite varietal and clean, with red fruit and floral aromas and a serious mouthfeel with very fine and chalky tannins. The oak is very integrated, and the wine feels harmonious and has good freshness.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A region that has become synonymous with some of the best whites of Chile, the Casablanca Valley is full of dozens of bodegas who either grow fruit here or come from outside to source from local growers for their own white wine programs. The valley runs from east to west, which means that its westernmost vineyards receive the most cooling influence from the reliable afternoon sea breezes. The soils also tend to be heavier in clay in the west, whereas the eastern end of the valley is warmer and its soils are predominantly granitic. Sauvignon blanc thrives here, Chardonnay does well and Pinot noir is not uncommon.