Winemaker Notes
The 2016 vintage of Rincon Vineyard Pinot Noir offers aromas of fresh raspberry and cranberry with a subtle touch of potpourri. Bright red cherry notes on the palate are complemented by white pepper and bay leaf. Try pairing this Pinot Noir with pork belly tacos with hoisin.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
One of the standouts is the 2016 Pinot Noir Rincon Vineyard, which comes from a hillside site in the Arroyo Grande and vines planted in 1982. Aged 18 months in 30% new French oak, it’s a powerful, opulent wine (especially when compared to the East Rincon release) and has awesome notes of ripe strawberries, red and black currants, spice, and forest floor. Elegant yet concentrated, medium-bodied, beautifully balanced, and with fabulous intensity, drink this gorgeous Pinot Noir any time over the coming decade or more.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark blackberry, elderberry, elderflower and sweet tar aromas show on the nose of this 30th anniversary bottling for the regionally pioneering winery. The palate is complex and vivid with flavors of boysenberry paste, lavender and rosemary blossom, and also picks up a dried beef element into the finish.
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.”
One of the coolest growing areas in California, the Arroyo Grande Valley runs from the southwest to the northeast, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Central Coast AVA. Situated so that cold Pacific Ocean air and fog is allowed to filter into the valley, Arroyo Grande also has an incredibly long growing season. Bud break occurs in February in most years with flowering in May and harvest in late September; the area is classified as cool Mediterranean.
These weather factors combined with the soil types—continental and marine rocks, greywacke, limestone, shale and volcanic—create wines with great concentration and fresh acidity. The cooler end of the valley is perfect for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and is a good producer of sparkling wines. The warmer, more inland part of the valley is home to some of California’s oldest Zinfandel vines.