Winemaker Notes
Siduri Lemoravo Vineyard Pinot Noir shows a fairly classic Santa Lucia Highlands profile – with loads of concentrated red and black fruits, along with slight hints of dried herbs and even a slight dusty, earthy complexity. The wine is more seamless that heavy, with superb balance, and a longer, lingering finish with just the slightest hint of finishing tannins (but good acidity).
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Siduri Lemoravo Vineyard Pinot Noir shows excellent density and style. TASTING NOTES: This wine brings bright, black fruit flavors to the fore and finishes with tremendous energy. (Tasted: March 29, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
Deep black-plum sauce, cocoa powder, black pepper, dark loam and vanilla show on the nose of this bottling from an unfamiliar vineyard by Adam Lee. The flavors are deep and dark but full of energy, with white pepper and plum jelly riding a relatively lighter frame.
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Wine Spectator
Refined and well-structured flavors of dried red cherry, raspberry and pomegranate are accented by notes of cedar and slate. Balsam and sandalwood hints emerge on the finish. Drink now through 2024.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a vineyard previously known as Dos Rubios Vineyard, located just below Sierra Mar, the 2017 Pinot Noir Lemoravo Vineyard was mostly destemmed (a small part of the Pommard clone wasn't destemmed) and was brought up 11 months in 30% new French oak. It offers a more rounded, spice, dried earth, and savory cherry bouquet as well as a medium-bodied, nicely textured, soft style on the palate. With good acidity and ample charm, it's ideal for drinking over the coming 4-5 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Lemoravo Vineyard has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and open nose of crushed blackberries and black cherries, red cherries, warm cranberries, soil, underbrush and hints of citrus peel and dried flowers. Light to medium-bodied and concentrated, it has a frame of grainy tannins and juicy freshness, finishing long and spicy.
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.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.