Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This expresses the greatness of its vintage and vineyard, offering wave after wave of raspberry and cherry pie flavors, plus notes of red currant, sweet licorice, spicy Dr. Pepper and smoky sandalwood. There’s also something exotically briary and wild that intrigues. Even more remarkable is the texture, an amalgam of acids and tannins that rivals any Pinot Noir ever produced in California. It should age for up to 20 years.
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Wine Spectator
Pure, rich and harmonious, with an expansive core of ripe plum, raspberry, fresh earth and mineral, tightening up on the finish. Drink now through 2023.
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.