Winemaker Notes
Pinot Noir can pair with a wide range of foods including rack of lamb, grilled salmon, beef bourguignon, pancetta wrapped roasted turkey and mushroom risotto.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Pinot Noir is terrific, with classic black raspberries and cherry fruits intermixed with spice-cake, incense, and dried flower/potpourri nuances. All from the Russian River Valley and aged 15 months in French oak, this beauty is medium to full-bodied, elegant and layered, with impressive depth and purity, as well as richness. It's going to drink nicely for at least a decade.
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James Suckling
Firm and linear with pretty tannins and a tight fruit profile. Ripe strawberry and citrus. Refined and energetic mouth feel.
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Wine Spectator
Creamy, spicy, vanilla-tinged oak adds an attractive aromatic element and textural suppleness to the core of zesty wild blackberry and spicy scents, enlivened by snappy acidity and vibrant tannins. Drink now through 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Cherry spice and earthy compost meet in this well-made, full-bodied wine from a warm vintage. Despite its density and concentration, it’s freshened by bright acidity and a streak of cinnamon cola that lasts into the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Pinot Noir Estate offers intense black cherry, red currant and mulberry notes with a spicy undercurrent of cinnamon, cloves and anise. Medium-bodied, it provides mouth-filling cherry and spice flavors with a good frame of grainy tannins and plenty of freshness.
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.