Winemaker Notes
Aromas of raspberry, lavender, blackberry, cedar, and vanilla bean. Flavors of boysenberry, black tea, Bing cherry, and bay leaf. On the finish, powerful elegance.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Last (but not least) of the single vineyards, the 2020 Pinot Noir Rosemary's was all destemmed and brought up in 37% new barrels. Its translucent darker ruby color is followed by a rocking nose of black raspberries, toasted spices, dried flowers, and iron. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, it has ripe tannins, a layered, multi-dimensional texture, and a great finish. It was my favorite in the lineup and is a straight-up gorgeous Pinot Noir readers will love.
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Wine & Spirits
Rosemary’s, planted by Don Talley in 1987 and named for his wife, is always cooler and often more elegant than the pinot from Rincon. In this wine you can smell the sea air and feel the thickness of skins in its dusty, red-fruited scent. The oak flavors are pronounced, even as the palate is all bright red fruits, the acids penetrating and firm. For salmon.
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.