Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Big, ripe and expressive, yet with a delicate array of nuanced flavors, extending from detailed cedar and mocha-laced oak to graphite, black licorice, fresh earth and savory cedar and herb. Finishes with a long push of flavor and persistence. Drink now through 2023.
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Wine Enthusiast
From a high-elevation vineyard soon to be part of the Petaluma Gap, a pending appellation, this robust, full-bodied wine is silky and herbal. An interesting mix of wild sage and tobacco is rounded out by ripe cherry and strawberry layers that take on a jammy texture. The whole finishes in a burst of cardamom spice.
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.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.