Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Just delicious, showing the promise of the 2010 vintage. The wine is ripe and intense in red cherry, cranberry and spice flavors, with a rich jacket of smoky oak. Feels like pure silk, while notable alcohol provides a boost of warmth for a chilly evening.
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Wine Spectator
Presents a bold, ripe mix of plum and blueberry flavors that are pure and focused, gaining depth and length. Ends with a dash of loamy earth.
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.”
Situated on the foggier and colder western edge of the Russian River Valley, almost abutting the Sonoma Coast appellation, Green Valley is one of California’s most reputable Chardonnay and Pinot noir producing regions. It is also a wonderful source of sparkling wines made from these varieties.
Goldridge soils abound throughout the Green Valley appellation. This fine, dark, sandy loam and fractured sandstone is derived from the remains of ancient inland seabeds dating back three to five million years. It is valuable for high quality grape growing because of its excellent drainage and low fertility.