Winemaker Notes
This Pinot Noir comes from a handful of sites on the Sonoma Coast and was brought up in 15% new French oak. Ruby-purple in color, the perfumed nose jumps from the glass with notes of ripe dark cherry, red plum, fresh wild blackberries, and clove. Elegant texture on the palate with flavors of crushed fresh wild blackberries, Bing cherries, dried flowers and flagrant earth. Overall, this complex wine is medium bodied and youthful, with grippy tannins.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.