Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Golden Mean is fabulous. Bright and nuanced, with terrific energy, the 2023 is sublime. Crushed flowers, red/purplish fruit, orange peel and a kiss of French oak all grace this restrained, beautifully elegant Pinot. This is such a classy wine, but it also feels like the most affected by its recent bottling. Even so, the purity of the fruit is sublime.
-
James Suckling
Very perfumed, with flowers, strawberries and some raspberries on the nose. Medium-bodied with intense lemon rind, dried strawberry and dried seaweed flavors. Linear and racy. Lots of blue fruit at the end.
-
Wine Spectator
Enticing boysenberry and raspberry coulis notes spill forth generously, though they are focused and harnessed by a spine of wet stone. Iris and potpourri drape the finish in lilting perfume. Best from 2036 through 2036.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Golden Mean explodes from the glass with compelling aromas of raspberry, strawberry, charcuterie, juniper, dried flowers and woodsy undertones. The palate combines powerful, powdery tannins with vibrant, driving acidity. It offers layered, expressive flavors and a long, ethereal finish.
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.