Winemaker Notes
Dark mountain berries and spice dominate this Pinot, with a stream of fine minerality snaking through. Wild, savory elements interplay with plump fruit flavors. A delicate, yet mysterious red that plays well with many cuisines.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Sierra Mar Vineyard is the most bracing and tensile of the Roar Pinot Noirs, opening with focused aromas of ripe red fruits, crushed stones, dried herbs and orange peels. The palate is opulent and saturated yet lined with a refreshing live-wire acidity, releasing into an inward, stony finish that will take some time to unwind. This does a beautiful job of instilling the region's natural ripeness with enough tension to support it.
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Wine Enthusiast
Lovely layers of black-cherry-laced cream, exuberant rose petal and hibiscus jelly draw the nose through hints of mace and star anise on the nose of this bottling. The palate is coated in silky textures and lush flavors of baked fruit, baking spice and toasty pastries.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Sierra Mar Vineyard opens with a rush of blood orange, purple berries and iodine. Initially soft-textured and accessible, chalky tannins immediately come into play as the 2022 withdraws back into itself. This is a little coiled up today give it a year in bottle to relax a bit.
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Wine Spectator
Plump, juicy and expressive, with boysenberry and loganberry compote notes bouncing through, flecked with anise, hibiscus and red tea accents along the way. The light-handed toast lets everything play out nicely on the 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.