Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Riva Ranch Vineyard Pinot Noir offers youthful aromas of ripe Rainier cherries, cranberry, and smoked nuts that are seamlessly combined with a delicate layer of ginger and cinnamon. Supple and rounded tannins combined with modest acidity keep the wine in perfect balance from front to back.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Cherries, forest berries, raspberries and sweet spices on the nose following through to a medium body with sleek tannins. Round and fruit-forward with a succulent and crunchy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Quite light in the glass, this bottling begins with herbal aromas of incense and bay leaf that enliven the black raspberry core of the nose. Juicy strawberry flavors are lifted by clove, incense and oak on the palate.
Founded in 1883, Wente Vineyards is the country’s longest continuously family-owned and operated winery. Today, the winery maintains its leadership role in California winegrowing under the ownership and management of the fourth and fifth generations of the Wente family. Blending traditional and innovative winemaking practices, the winery draws from its sustainably-farmed vineyards to create an outstanding portfolio of wines. The family owns and operates vineyards in two world-class regions of the Central Coast of California - Livermore Valley and Arroyo Seco, Monterey. Located just east of San Francisco in the historic Livermore Valley, Wente Vineyards is recognized as one of California’s premier wine country destinations, featuring wine tasting, food and wine experiences, and championship golf.
In 1912, 2nd Generation Ernest Wente persuaded his father and founder, C.H. Wente, to import Chardonnay cuttings from a well-known vine nursery, F. Richter Nursery in Montpellier, France, to the Livermore Valley. Ernest hand-picked vines that showed the best health and pronounced flavors, grafted the two together and propagated those characteristics forward. Ultimately creating what is known as the ‘Wente Clone.’ Today, over 75% of all California Chardonnay stems from the Wente Clone and the Wente Family property.
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.”
Named after the dramatic, seasonal river of rain and snowmelt that cuts through the upper elevations of the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Arroyo Seco AVA extends east from the resultant mountain gorge, and into the rural and warm Salinas Valley. During the growing season, cool and damp Pacific Ocean air penetrates the gorge and flows into the valley, creating a cool evening respite for vineyards after a hot summer day. This natural water-release has also created a subterranean aquifer, which helps set the foundation of the AVA's boundaries and supplies the vineyards with water.
Arroyo Seco was actually home to the first commercial vineyard in California, called Mission Ranch, which was owned and propogated by the Mirassou family in the 1960s.
Chardonnay is most widely grown here. But as one of Monterey’s warmer regions, Arroyo Seco enjoys the highest praise for its reds, namely Bordeaux blends.
Arroyo Seco is one of the oldest AVAs in California, its status granted in the early 1980s, and also remains one of its smallest.