Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Estate Gap’s Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir wows with its concentration and structure. Blueberry blossoms, black cherry, and gingerbread meld together to give this wine heavenly aromatics. On the palate, you’ll find lush, savory notes and blue fruits. This wine is built to last and is always an excellent candidate for cellaring.
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
If there is a problem with this wine, it is that it is far too inviting right now. It is enormously rich and fruity with an almost decadent mix of creamy oak sweetness and succulent, perfectly ripened black cherries that speaks to the very best that its noted site offers, and finding the patience it needs in which to develop sure-to-appear complexity will definitely not come easy. Please take our advice that there is a good deal more to come with age, and do not judge us too harshly if we happen to be caught doing not what we say.
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Wine Enthusiast
Made from the iconic site, which is also owned by the producer, this wine is richly layered and supremely structured in a wealth of crunchy red fruit and cardamom spice. Tension reigns in the form of sharp, persistent acidity and bold, integrated tannins that add substance and style.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a well-known site located in the Petaluma Gap region of the Sonoma Coast, the 2017 Pinot Noir Gap’s Crown Vineyard was mostly destemmed (there are 28% whole clusters) and brought up in 51% new oak. It’s another classy, impeccably made effort that has a great perfume of black raspberries and dark berry fruits as well as medium body, bright yet integrated acidity, fine tannins, and building complexity in its darker, earthy, spicy aromas and flavors. It too has a decade of prime drinking ahead of it.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard was made with 28% whole cluster and aged 15 months in 51% new French oak. Pale ruby in color, the aromas take coaxing, but with time, scents of crushed red and black cherries, smoked cranberries and rhubarb arrive, accented by cinnamon, dried leaves, tobacco, mushroom and earth with spices and bitters in the undercurrent. The palate is medium-bodied with satisfying depth of flavor, a gentle frame and well-woven freshness on the long finish. 725 cases produced.
Three Sticks Wines is a boutique, family-owned winery recognized for pinot noir and chardonnay. Proprietor Bill Price III (nicknamed “Billy Three Sticks”) owns six Grand Cru level estate vineyards in Sonoma County, including three Heritage vineyards–Durell, Gap’s Crown, and Walala and three Monopole vineyards–One Sky, Alana, and William James. An intimate relationship with each property shines through in each of the Three Sticks wines, reflecting a keen understanding of how working with great vineyards, along with a meticulous winemaking style, produces inspiring results.
The Vallejo-Castenada Adobe (built in 1842) was built by Captain Salvador Vallejo, brother of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the Commandante Generale of the northern territory of Mexico (modern day Sonoma). The Prices purchased the property in 2012 and embarked on a two-year preservation project. The Three Sticks team worked with Sonoma historians and the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation to restore and protect the fabric of the property. They commissioned San Francisco-based designer Ken Fulk and his team to design the ambience of the Adobe, as it is known locally. The historic landmark in downtown Sonoma is now home to the hospitality of Three Sticks.
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.