Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This smooth red is impressive for its polish and finesse, showing subtle cherry, berry, mineral and spice flavors that build depth and intensity, while maintaining an understated elegance. Drink now through 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a well-known, even iconic site for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the 2009 Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard comes from Dijon clones 115 and 777. The color is similar to the other Pinot Noirs, dark ruby with some lightening at the edge. With pure cherry and raspberry notes as well as hints of herbs and loamy soil, the wine is medium to full-bodied, not as open or expressive as his three previous offerings, but deep and impressively built, with outstanding concentration and flavor authority. It has crisp acidity and should drink nicely for at least 5-6 years. It could benefit from another 6 months of bottle age.
Rating: 91+
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.