Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Sometimes a wine is so remarkable that you just don't know what to do with it. The 2013 Small Vines Wines Estate Cuvée Pinot Noir is such a wine. Packed with black fruit, leather and wild leaves and forest floor, this wine is as exotic as a wine can get. This wine pairs up well with perfectly ripened Epoisses—a pungent, cow's milk cheese from Burgundy. Drinking nicely now. (Tasted: May 16, 2016, San Francisco, CA
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas and flavors of sandalwood and grenadine layer around this velvety, seductive wine. It offers black tea, truffle and forest floor, the body sinewy and complex. Savory in cinnamon and clove on the finish, it needs more time to open; decant or cellar through 2021.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.