Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Much more serious and focused, the 2011 Pinot Noir Reserve, which spent 10 months in 50% new French oak, offers up notions of crisp black cherries, new leather and crushed stone that flow to a medium-bodied, pure and detailed wine that carries finely polished tannin and plenty of length. It should age nicely through 2020. Drink now-2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rich and impressive, not only for its wealth of concentrated flavor, but for the full-bodied mouthfeel and overall polish. It’s showing flashy cherry, currant and pomegranate fruit now, but the tannins are fairly hefty, while the acidity is brisk and mouthwatering. Wants some time in the cellar. Better after 2016. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
Deep and intense, with firm, gripping tannins cloaking a core of earthy raspberry, anise and black cherry. Firm on the finish, imbuing the flavors with traction. Best from 2014 through 2022.
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.