Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Golden Mean Pinot Noir opens with dark notes of anise, blueberry and forest floor, before evolving into fresh lavender and rose water. The texture of this wine always sets it apart, as the supple tannin of the Pommard clone drives the richness and element of spice found in this wine.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from Pommard and Swan, mostly from two separate blocks, the 2017 Pinot Noir Golden Mean saw a tiny amount of whole cluster and the standard 50-60% new oak. Similarly colored to the Mother Rock, it gives up a perfumed bouquet of red currants, forest floor, and rose petals. It's another seamless, elegant, beautifully balanced wine that has fine tannins, nicely integrated acidity, and a clean, elegant style.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2017 Pinot Noir Golden Mean needs some air to reveal wild blackberries, moss-covered bark, orange peel, cranberry and black raspberry with rose petal, autumn leaves, tobacco and dusty earth—beautifully broody and perfumed. The palate is medium-bodied and dense with earthy fruits accented by red berry sparks. The frame is fine, grainy and juicy with loads of berry fruit and a long, elegantly textured finish. This was made with about 10% whole cluster from Swan and Pommard clone fruit.
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.