Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Pinot Noir is pure and focused with brightness and stunning structure. On the nose, raspberry, tart cherry and cassis merge with notes of violets, orange spice and a burst of fresh basil. Fine, chalky tannins and hints of crushed cacao underlie the brilliant red fruits and florals. The density, complexity and persistent minerality of this wine lead into a finish that lasts and lasts. The 2021s will age gracefully for many years.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very floral with hints of rose stems and hibiscus to the fresh ripe strawberry and citrus character. Medium to full body. Dried peach and orange peel flavors. Very long and intense. Lively at the end with lovely purity of fruit. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir The Estate (previously labeled "Pinot Noir Wayfarer Vineyard") has inviting aromas of cranberry sauce, mushroom, allspice and bitters. The palate's concentrated, nuanced fruit is structured by focused acidity and generous, powdery tannins, and it finishes with a flourish of spicy accents. It's drinking beautifully now and will develop savory complexity in bottle over the next decade.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A deep ruby, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Estate is ripe and layered with an attractive perfume of cardamom, pure wild raspberry, and fresh sage. Medium-bodied, it expands with good length and concentration, its pure fruit is seamless throughout, and it has a fresh spine of acidity. Offering a lovely balance of fruit and freshness, with ripe tannins and a rocky texture, it should be drunk 2024-2034.
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Wine Spectator
Offers showy raspberry and boysenberry puree notes that stream through, gilded liberally with anise, violet and hibiscus accents. Shows a sense of polish on the finish, though there's a good tug of structure at the very end as well.
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.