Winemaker Notes
A complex wine with red berries, black plum, and flower petals supported by darker notes of dried herbs, cedar, clove, allspice, dried citrus peel, and forest floor. Full-bodied, with stony minerality and grippy tannins.
Professional Ratings
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The Somm Journal
Poised and sturdy, with sweet tobacco; mountain heather; and a clean sheath of sugared beet, plum, and black cherry. A swath of salty stone highlights the wine’s juiciness, and as it opens up, its elegant power is augmented.
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Tasting Panel
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Wine Enthusiast
Bursting in energy and robust flavors of black tea and baked strawberry, this is a lush, plush and richly layered wine big in tannin and bright persistent acidity. Floral components of rose and lavender give it an inviting aromatic edge that complements the fruit.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe, with Asian spice and licorice hints accenting the concentrated roasted plum and dark cherry flavors. The finish is filled with caressing tannins and cedary notes. Drink now through 2024.
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.