Winemaker Notes
Golden Mean is a union of contrasts: the earthy aromatics and powerful structure of the Pommard clone married with the elegance and alluring perfume of the Swan clone. This wine is an aromatic journey, beginning with floral notes of magnolia and lavender, leading to vibrant fruit tones of cranberry and mandarin, finishing with warm garden scents of marjoram and fresh anise. The velvet mouthfeel glides through a mid-palate rich with raspberries, rose hips and hints of black pepper and cedar. Ready to savor upon release, this wine will age beautifully for another 10-15 years.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Lightening acidity here with vibrant and ripe fruit that gives depth and beauty. Wonderful verve to this well-crafted pinot. Such energy. Drink or hold.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Lush and velvety, this wine offers big, dark cherry flavor around a tangy minerality. From three vineyard blocks planted to Pommard and Swan clones, it balances opposites in the way full-bodied luxuriousness meets acidity-driven juiciness, creating a desire for more. Let this wine open in the glass or cellar through 2023. Cellar Selection
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2013 Pinot Noir Golden Mean is a beautiful complete, tight, Burgundian-styled effort that needs to be left alone for another 2-3 years. Black cherry, violets, blueberry and sappy floral notes emerge from this medium to full-bodied, structured 2013 that has bright acidity, excellent concentration and plenty of length on the finish.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Golden Mean is made exclusively from Pommard and Swan clones. Medium to deep ruby colored, the 2013 Pinot Noir Golden Mean has a savory, sautéed herbs-led nose with earthy notes of mossy bark, loam and dried leaves over a gentle red currant jelly and raspberry tart core. The medium-bodied palate has a wonderfully firm, chewy texture that nicely corrals the vibrant red fruits and earthy layers, finishing with a refreshing lift.
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.”
On the far western edge of the larger Sonoma Coast appellation, the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA hugs right up against the Pacific coast. Vineyards, planted at rugged elevations between 920 to 1,800 feet, occupy only two percent of the total land in the AVA. Fort Ross-Seaview growers believe that the region boasts an ideal mix of sunshine, cool air and beneficial stress for producing high quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir.