Winemaker Notes
This vineyard sits just above Sangiacomo Vineyard on a hillside and is considered in the highest echelon of California Pinot noir vineyards. Gap's Crown Vineyard continues to impress us as winemakers, with each block offering exceptional and distinctive qualities that make blending the final wine a fun and rewarding experience. For the 2014 vintage, we just keep saying "wow," and we think you will too, once you taste the wine. Dark cherry and blackberry aromas lead to hints of baking spice and thyme. It makes a stunning first impression with its explosive aromatics, plush texture and bold structure. In 2014, we fermented 10% of the grapes whole-cluster adding to the wine's rich character and aromatic complexity.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Lightly aromatic, but rich and layered, this offers excellent density and depth, with fine-grained tannic grip and a long, persistent finish that keeps flashing the core flavors. Drink now through 2020.
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.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.