Winemaker Notes
#8 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2025
The 2023 Pinot Noir ‘The Estate’ flaunts a vibrant ruby hue in the glass. Expressive, layered aromatics evoke alpine strawberry, black raspberry, crushed rose petal, green cardamom, pomegranate and fresh sage. The seamless pure fruit character is framed with firm but finely textured tannin and elevated with a fresh backbone of acidity. While drinking beautifully now, this vintage will continue to develop nuance and complexity in bottle for the next decade.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very distinctive, with black cherries, dark strawberries, red roses and touches of black pepper and other spices on the nose. Medium-bodied with creamy tannins and texture and a long finish. It’s very structured, but the tannins are resolved. The acid drives the wine, giving a unique drinking experience. Give this some time. Better from 2028.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of all 11 clones at the estate, the 2023 Pinot Noir The Estate is a jeweled ruby color and opens with bright notes of currants, crunchy, bright berries, brambly spices, clove, and fresh lavender. The palate is vibrant and tension-driven, with well-defined tannins, focused acidity, and a stony texture throughout the wine. Drink 2026-2046.
Rating: 96+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir The Estate has kaleidoscopic scents of wild cherry, pomegranate, dried flowers, conifer and spice that draw you back to the glass again and again. The palate offers power without weight, its vibrant acidity driving highly concentrated flavors. It’s framed by barely there, silky tannins and has a hauntingly long finish. Wow!
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Wine Spectator
Offers beautifully rendered notes of hibiscus, rose petal, damson plum and mulberry that stretch out lengthily thanks to the fine-beaded acidity and taut, precise tannins. The sapid finish lets in tea and incense hints amid the glistening 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.