Winemaker Notes
Deep red in color.
There is a black cherry jam nose intermixed with earth, smoke, violets and vanilla.
The wine is full-bodied, long and silky with flavors of black cherry and vanilla.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A fragrant, delicate style, with pretty plum, black cherry and wild berry scents that are both rich and elegant. This is sharply focused and displays excellent balance, with a long, persistent finish that reveals extra measures of depth. Drink now through 2012. 3,580 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The medium ruby-hued 2006 Pinot Noir Estate possesses soft, strawberry and kirsch-like aromas, abundant sweet berry fruit on the palate, good acidity, and a soft, round style meant to be consumed over the next several years.
Range: 88-91
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.