Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Coming from their estate vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills and made by Justin Willett of Tyler Wines, the 2013 Pinot Noir is a beautiful, elegant and seamless red that exhibits classy notes of sweet cherries, rose bush, wet rock and charcoal. Medium-bodied, lively and pure, with ultra-fine tannin structure, it should have a decade or more of overall longevity. Mostly destemmed, it spent 18 months in 25% new French oak prior to bottling.
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Wine & Spirits
The pinot noir vines at the Wenzlau family’s vineyard on a bench above the Santa Ynez River aren’t even ten years old, but they grew a compelling wine in 2013. It’s bright and lean, with a vivid lavender scent and mouthwatering, pomegranate-red fruit, lasting on brisk fragrance rather than weight, as if you can feel the cooling waters of the Pacific seven miles away. A racy pinot noir for halibut. (512 cases)
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.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.