Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard was made with 10% whole cluster and aged in 50% new French oak. Pale to medium ruby, the nose is slow to unfurl to scents of smoked cranberries, baked rhubarb, pure raspberry and strawberry preserves, candied violets and blackberry pie with spicy and earthy touches. The palate is medium-bodied, silky and intense, with unfurling, spiced flavor layers. It has a fine, grainy frame and seamless freshness, finishing long and layered. 1,025 cases produced.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Brawny yet bright in tangy orange peel, cranberry and strawberry, this well-made wine from a well-known and coveted site is impressive in its breadth and complexity. With thirst-quenching acidity it fills the palate with fruit, spice and oak in equal measure.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2017 Pinot Noir Gap’s Crown Vineyard is the clear standout and offers plenty of dark cherry and black raspberry fruits interwoven with hints of chocolate, toasted spices, and dried earth. Beautifully textured, medium to full-bodied, with integrated acidity and fine tannin, it shines both for its terrific complex as well as textural richness on the palate. Drink it anytime over the coming decade.
-
James Suckling
Loads of cherries, but also plenty of tannic power, concentration and some mineral character, making this young pinot noir an exciting wine that has a long life ahead of it. Drink or hold.
-
Wine Spectator
Textured, concentrated flavors of dried cherry, rose petal and currant are backed by powerful acidity. Sandalwood and spice notes linger on the plush rich finish. Drink now through 2024.
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.