Winemaker Notes
This amazing site is expressing itself with purity of fruit, great natural acidity, satisfying tannins, minerality and even some distinct savory characteristics.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A perfumed and layered nose of ripe red fruit, anise, fennel seeds and violets. Full-bodied with fine tannins. Expansive on the palate with juicy red and black fruit, dried herbs, ground spice and fresh flowers all melding together, without coming across as too dense or rich, but rather lifted and graceful. Structured, balanced and long. Seriously delicious. Showing exceptionally well now, but will continue to get better. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
From the producer's own home estate planted in 2009, this is a gorgeous reckoning of minty sage, black tea and cool-climate hits of pomegranate and rhubarb. The tannins are strong and supportive and soften in the glass, showing graceful structure that complements the crisp, persistent acidity.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2018 Pinot Noir TBH Vineyard comes all from The Barlow Homestead Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast and saw 43% stems and all neutral oak. Pretty cranberry and mulberry fruits, damp earth, and bouquet garni notes give way to a medium-bodied, tight, backward, closed Pinot Noir that has plenty of tannins, nicely integrated acidity, and a great finish. It's another wine from this estate that's not for those seeking instant gratification yet will reward bottle age.
Rating: 92+
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 historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.