Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From the cooler Sonoma Coast, the 2016 Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard just leaps out of the glass with its spice, pine forest, wild strawberry, blueberry, and incense aromas and flavors. Incredibly complex, medium to full-bodied, with nicely integrated acidity, it has plenty of fruit and richness, as well as length on the finish. It will be better in a year or two and thrill for over a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2016 Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard has a Syrah-like nose of cracked black pepper, smoked meats, dried tobacco leaf, fried savory herbs, wild blackberries, crushed stone and old leather with blue and red fruit hints. Medium-bodied, it's savory in the mouth, intense but silky smooth, with laser-like juicy acidity, finishing very long, layered and packed to the gills with flavor. This has a savory profile but with amazing freshness, lift and energy. 180 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
A spicy white-pepper note opens this wine. Root beer, black cherry and firm tannins combine for a beefy midpalate of freshness and power.
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.