Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A gamey offering, the 2003 Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard offers up hints of strawberries, wild flowers, earth, mushrooms, and pomegranates. Tart acidity provides definition in this strongly flavored, concentrated Pinot.
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Wine Enthusiast
If you’re into aging Pinot Noir, here’s one to lay down with a reasonable certainty. It’s young, with a silky texture, and the oak, acids, alcohol and fruit haven’t knit together yet. But it’s massive in dark cherry, pomegranate and blackberry flavors.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.