Three Sticks Price Family Estates Pinot Noir 2017
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Decanter
Even in potentially cool zones like the foggy Sonoma Coast, there's always a breadth and a grandeur to California's finest Pinot Noirs. What our judges liked so much about this example was the fact that its fundamental scale was no impediment to a sense of finesse and refinement in the fruit. You'll find almost perfumed, violet-and-rose scents behind the fresh plum, while on the palate this is a concentrated and vivacious wine with resonant black-fruit acidity, light tannins, delicious underlying sweetness and mouthwatering purity and freshness. Drink 2019-2025
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Wine Spectator
Luxurious flavors of blueberry, kirsch and dark cherry glide across the palate, with an enveloping creamy texture. Dark chocolate, spice and mocha details show on the fresh, juicy finish. Drink now through 2025.”
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Wine Enthusiast
This youthful wine is from several properties owned by the producer, including the Walala, Gap’s Crown, Durell and One Sky Vineyards. Earth, clove and tree bark tones provide a savory edge of complexity, followed by focused elements of baking spice, orange, pomegranate and strawberry. Structured yet bright, it is cohesive and delicious.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Price Family Estates is medium ruby colored and features allspice and nutmeg touches with concentrated cranberry sauce, red cherry preserves, baked blackberries, cola and woodsmoke. Light to medium-bodied with tons of spicy fruit layers in the mouth, it has a supporting frame of grainy tannins and lip-smacking acidity with a long-lingering finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from a site on the Sonoma Coast, the 2017 Pinot Noir Price Family Estates sports a medium ruby, moderately translucent color as well as a spice, black cherry, incense, and dried underbrush-driven profile. Textured, medium-bodied, and seamless on the palate, it's beautifully balanced and a smoking little wine.
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Tasting Panel
Crisp and lively with length and lovely depth; fresh and tangy. With Bob Cabral, former winemaker at Williams Selyem, as Director of Winemaking, these wines are even better than before.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Three Sticks Pinot Noir survived one of the most challenging seasons in the Sonoma and Napa areas. While we have paused, said our goodbyes, we know that we have to go forward. In this vintage of stress, this wine is a testament to survival. TASTING NOTES: This wine is charmed and beautiful. Its aromas and flavors of red fruit, savory earth stay strong and rich to the wine's finish. Pair it with wild game. (Tasted: July 12, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Bob Cabral makes this wine in a project with Bill Price, selecting the fruit from four of Price’s vineyards. Most of it comes from the 17 acres at Walala, a vineyard in the redwood forests at the northwestern reaches of Sonoma County; the balance comes from Gap’s Crown, Durell and One Sky. It has the freshness of cool red cherries and the savor of roast meats, the tannins ripe and integrated while still lending shape to the wine.
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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.
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.