Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Sanguine in color with touches of the same on the nose, this 2014 Pinot, from all three of Seresin’s former vineyards, has aged with grace and poise. It leads with notes of wild strawberry, cherry, flower stalks and peppery, herbaceous characters, along with a slightly meaty tone. There’s a delicious crunch on the palate, tangy, still-bright red fruit at its heels and fine tannins offering a helping hand. Drink up—this delicate creature is peaking now. The Sorting Table.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby colored, the 2013 Rachel Pinot Noir has an earthy nose of loam, moss-covered bark and garrigue with a core of raspberry leaves, red currants and wild thyme. The medium-bodied palate offers intense red berry and earth flavors with a solid backbone of grainy tannins and lively acid, finishing with great length.
Rating: 91+
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.”
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.