Rochioli Big Hill Pinot Noir 2016
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Robert
Parker
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This single vineyard wine is the result of over seventy-five years and three generations of winemaking and grapegrowing experience in the Russian River Valley. Specially-selected barrels and traditional winemaking techniques give this Estate wine its unique style and flavor. Production is strictly limited, ensuring that this wine represents the very best Rochioli has to offer. It will continue to age gracefully for years to come.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced using a good portion of Calera Clone fruit (40%), the 2016 Pinot Noir Big Hill Vineyard gives a medium to deep ruby-purple color and is intensely scented of black raspberries, red currants, rhubarb and strawberry pie and blackberries with touches of lavender, fertile earth, menthol and cracked pepper. Medium to full-bodied with firm, fine-grained tannins and packed with muscular, tightly-wound fruit, this Pinot is built like brick house, finishing on an epically lingering mineral note. Wow!
Other Vintages
2019-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
The Rochioli family has been growing grapes on its 136-acre ranch since the 1930s. In 1987, Tom Rochioli created the first Rochioli Estate Pinot Noir which Wine Spectator named “The Best Pinot Noir in America.” The Rochioli Vineyard is situated in a very diverse part of the Russian River Valley promoting diversity in the soil types, proximity to the ocean, as well as the contours of the valley, allowing for morning fog and cool evening breezes.
With three generations of dedication to the land, Rochioli Vineyards & Winery has earned the reputation as one of Sonoma County’s finest wineries. The decades-long tradition of outstanding vintages continues today with wines that consistently receive rave reviews and 90+ scores. Always in demand, always revered and always rated among the best varietals sought after around the world.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.