Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This bright, focused wine with tense acidity blends fruit from five vineyards across the appellation. Silky tannins enwrap its nuanced dark cherry and wild strawberry flavors tinged with earth.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
A lively wine, the red-fruited 2015 Sojourn Russian River Valley Pinot Noir shows lovely balance and style. The wine's medium-bodied stature makes it a nice choice with simply grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: July 20, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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.