Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Pinot Noir Sweet Water is largely from three clones – the Pommard clone, the Rochioli Selection, and the Dijon clone 115. This wine has a deep ruby/purple color, a sweet nose of black raspberries, strawberries and cherries, great fruit on the attack, full body, and an opulent, rich mouthfeel with good acidity, purity, and length. Without a trace of over-ripeness, this concentrated wine should drink well for at least a decade.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dusty blackberry and juicy clove mark this softly textured, earthy and layered red wine. Full bodied without being bodacious, it instead offers the classic richness and reward of the appellation from a great site in a great vintage.
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Wine Spectator
Complex, with cherry, berry and plum flavors amid fine-grained tannins, framed by smoky, toasty oak. Gains dimension and depth as the fruit core pushes through the gravelly aftertaste of earth and anise. Drink now through 2022.
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.