Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This is one of the winery's more elegant, sensual wines. What it does not possess in sheer power it more than makes up for in hedonistic delight. Racy and silky, it excites the palate with intricate layers of black raspberry and cherry tart, cola, Asian spices and smoky oak. The finish goes on and on and on.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Pinot Noir Peay Vineyard offers hints of tobacco leaf intermixed with red currant, sweet cherry, crushed rocks, and spring flowers. It is well-made, seemingly lower in acidity than some of the other wines, but solidly made and deep.
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.