Winemaker Notes
2018 was one of those magical years. With a mild spring, the early growing season plodded along at a relatively normal pace. Once the berries set, they knew they had a healthy and full crop. So full, in fact, they did a number of fruit-thinning passes to reduce the load on the vines. Even with this, they were happy to see an above-average harvest with superb quality. They started picking in earnest after Labor Day, with cool, fall weather that allowed them to transfer the grapes in a calm and measured pace. All in all, 2018 will go down as a year to remember, with wines of true depth and power.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Lithe and fruity, with crushed red plum, raspberry and cherry tart flavors, loaded with rich, spicy accents. Ripe midpalate, featuring a finish that turns creamy, backed by medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2026.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Pinot Noir Price Family Estates offers a slightly more complex, almost herbal style that carries solid red (and black) fruits intermixed with plenty of black tea, forest floor, earth, and spring flower aromas and flavors. It's medium-bodied, nicely textured, has integrated acidity, and a great finish. It’s another satisfying, complex, outstanding Pinot Noir from this team.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Simply put, the first two Three Sticks Pinots from the 2018 vintage are lovely wines that both reinforce our high regard for this accomplished estate and have us eagerly awaiting for what necessarily will be more to come in the months ahead. The Price Family Estates bottling is a precise, very well-measured effort that sets its sights on vigorous, red cherry fruit early on and takes on added interest as judicious sweet oak and hints of dried flowers come into play. Long and vibrant and beautifully balanced with energy to spare, it is a wine well worth waiting on for at least a couple of years however immensely appealing it may be at present.
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Tasting Panel
Rich, ripe and tangy with deep cherry fruit, meaty and lush, long and tangy with balance and good length.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Three Sticks Price Family Estates Pinot Noir shows plenty of power and excellent balance. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits bright red fruit and a hint of blackberries. Enjoy its generous length on the palate with fresh rosemary garnished, grilled lamb chops. (Best Served: 2020-2028)
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Decanter
Cranberries, dried hedgerow herbs, liquorice and sweet spice meet lovely classic raspberry and cherry aromas with an earthy, tarry note.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Price Family Estates has a medium ruby color and scents of crushed black cherries, lilac and forest floor with nuances of mint leaves, pepper and oolong tea. Medium-bodied, it offers spicy flavors in a smooth frame with addicting juiciness and a long, nuanced finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Blended from a selection of estate sites, from Walala and Gap’s Crown to Durell, this red is hearty in blue fruit, black cherry and earthy forest floor. Burly tannins wrap around the dense core of length and expanse—a bold statement of a wine.
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.