Winemaker Notes
#15 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2019
#43 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2019
Aromas of leather, chaparral, and cloves lead to a palate rich with dark fruit, chocolate shavings, and a hint of graphite. On the palate, these sumptuous flavors carry through, with candied violets balanced by an essence of charcuterie and plump black cherry on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Rich and ripe in aromas of red cherry, caramel and oak, this bottling is made elegant and complex from the crushed slate and stony qualities that thrive throughout. A concentrated Bing cherry flavor rings on the bone-dry palate, lifted by mint and more chiseled stone. This is amazingly ripe and delicious, yet hewn with impressive minerality. Editors’ Choice.
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Jeb Dunnuck
One of the standouts in the vintage is the 2017 Pinot Noir Sierra Mar Vineyard. This brilliant wine comes from more decomposed granite and gravelly soils and was brought up in 71% new French oak. Thrilling notes of crushed rocks, rose petals, gravelly minerality, and ample black cherry and black raspberry fruit all flow to layered, medium to full-bodied Pinot Noir that carries remarkable intensity yet stays weightless and balance. It’s pure class.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and plush, revealing a sinewy power to the dried cherry, macerated plum and red currant flavors. Luxuriantly spiced, with a long, creamy finish of cardamom, dried ginger and chocolate hints. Well-crafted and elegantly styled. Drink now through 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby, the 2017 Pinot Noir Sierra Mar has aromas of baked rhubarb, crushed black cherries, redcurrants, clove, licorice and dried leaves with touches of citrus peel, tree bark, pipe tobacco and a very pretty floral undercurrent. The light to medium-bodied palate is über spicy and features well-tempered fruits, a grainy, fresh frame and long, floral finish.
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.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.