Winemaker Notes
On the nose, black cherry and sous bois, a French term meaning ‘forest floor’, mingle with notes of cinnamon, cedar, and pipe tobacco. Black cherry juice and creamy strawberry flavors, along with a hint of faded rose, lighten up the palate. The superb resolution of tannin makes this full-bodied wine seem almost weightless in the mouth, while flavors reminiscent of Christmas cake spices, and candied orange peel linger on the finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Pretty as all get-out, this wine is a floral masterpiece—a study in coastal rose and forest scents with a counterpunch of white pepper that leaves one wanting more. Juicy raspberry, strawberry and tangerine flavors are seasoned in allspice and tobacco, the palate so beautifully delicate yet fully realized in savory complexity and length.
-
Connoisseurs' Guide
Hailing from a particularly cool vineyard in the western reaches of the Sonoma Coast, this mildly floral look at the grape emphasizes brightness and buoyancy over ripeness and extract. It is balanced to firmness and built along comparatively leaner lines with plenty of youthful acidity lifting its slightly tangy, red cherry and plum finish. It is sleek Pinot that wants drinking with somewhat lighter fare and will round into top form with a couple years of additional age.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.