Winemaker Notes
Deep red cherry color that welcomes the senses with aromas of red raspberry, cherry cola, tobacco, and dried eucalyptus leaves along with notes of mint and cinnamon. Inviting flavors of black plum, red currant and dried red cherry layered over notes of forest floor, grilled meats and white pepper on the finish. This wine features a rich mouthfeel along with balanced acidity and a refined tannin structure that lingers on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Quite dark in the glass, this bottling offers black plum skin, clay, gravel and berry pie aromas. The mouthfeel is full of polished tannins and edged with sharp acidity. Dark fruit and wet earth flavors dominate.
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.”
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.