Winemaker Notes
Try pairing with grilled salmon and green beans, pork loin spiced with oregano or creamy polenta with wild mushrooms.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
For a “simple life,” this Pinot has a complex personality. With tilled soil and black cherry arousing the olfactory senses and a blooming of rhubarb and white pepper unfolding on the taste buds, the wine has a fine acidity that keeps it fresh and sippable. A smidgen of Petite Sirah adds pleasing violet notes and a touch of velvet tannins.
Internationally recognized for gorgeous, pure fruit combined with great elegance, California Pinot noir thrives among the state’s cooler, coastal zones. Characterized by eclectic flavors and aromas of strawberry, black cherry, plum and potpourri with notes of forest floor, mushroom or black tea, the best California Pinot noir boast a supple texture and good acidity, giving them the ability to improve with age.
Credited with the beginning of Pinot noir’s glory in California, two growers, Joe Rochioli and Joseph Swan in the late 1960s independently planted Pinot noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Today Sonoma County remains the leading producer of Pinot noir in the state, and Pinot noir is the leading red grape in the county, achieving its highest potential, in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Other coastal appellations where Pinot noir flourishes include Carneros, Anderson Valley and most of the Central Coast.