Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The fifth vintage from this cool site near Annapolis, the wine is spicy, creamy and on the fuller-bodied end of the spectrum, aromatically rich in baked strawberry and raspberry. Resolved tannins and integrated oak make for a seamless experience, the wine clean, composed and crisp on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The deep ruby/plum-colored 2013 Pinot Noir Ridgetop Vineyard exhibits notes of forest floor, black cherries and wild berries. Fashioned from clones 115, 667 and 777, it is elegant, pure, medium-bodied and concentrated, but never heavy or overbearing. Drink now-2021
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Wine Spectator
Pure and vibrant, with snappy wild berry, plum and blackberry flavors, accented by dusty, cedary oak and a dash of black licorice. Drink now through 2020. 425 cases made.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.