Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Calegari Vineyard has a medium ruby-purple color, with a nose of spiced cranberry sauce, blueberry, baked rhubarb, peppered meats and blackberry preserves with touches of nutmeg, warm earth, mineral notions and oodles of potpourri spice. It's light to medium-bodied and silky with lush fruits anchored by mineral notions, firmly framed by grainy tannins and finishing very long with great freshness. 721 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is an Eastside Road hillside site that contributes balanced weight and smooth, seductive texture to this wine. With flavors of red cherry and raspberry, it has texture and complexity, with touches of Asian spice and black tea.
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.