Winemaker Notes
The Annadel Gap Vineyard is a special place. Located between Mt. Hood and the Sonoma Mountains, our site is characterized by thick morning fog and strong afternoon winds. Alluvial, glacial, and sedimentary influences create a wide array of soil types. Fruit was hand-harvested at night, clones kept separate, and arrived at the winery by daybreak. The fruit was hand sorted and clones fermented individually, with up to 20% whole cluster. 6 days cold soak, gentle punch downs 1-3 times daily, 14 days on skins & gently basket pressed. Gravity fed to French oak barrels (55% new). Aged 11 months on lees, gently fined, bottled unfiltered.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Cherries and wild mushrooms perfume the glass. On the palate, rhubarb chimes in, with a serious broadening of pencil shavings not far behind. This becomes deeply earthy with spiced basil and sweet sage. Raspberries are ashy and tobacco drenched; a rumbling of bass notes. Acidity has a high pitch and leads the finish toward a coffee bean with snappy cinnamon.
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Wine Enthusiast
Reduced on the nose, youthfully, the reduction blows away to reveal a fruity landscape of blueberry and blackberry that's ripe yet light. Spritzy acidity freshens a hearty body and supportive oak.
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.”
Perhaps the most historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.