Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This Pinot is so addictively delicious. It's a big wine, in color and even some tannins, with juicy cherry, plum and cola flavors, but somehow manages to maintain elegance and delicacy. What a finish. It goes on for a full minute.
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Wine & Spirits
The broad texture is there when this is first poured, with light, tangy strawberry and red currant flavors feeling lean against the full tannins. Then air fills out the fruit with a generous, dry savor, the wine feeling as cool as the redwood forest floor in the western stretches of the Russian River Valley.
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.