Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The Petaluma Gap site shows its innate earthiness in droves here, opening in a rose petal aroma before evolving slowly to reveal dense, delicate layers of black tea, orange peel and allspice. The savory tones lead to a midpalate that bursts of rich berries, with soft, supple tannins framing it all.
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Wine Spectator
Refined and elegant, featuring crunchy acidity behind the lively, mineral-infused flavors of spice and crushed red fruit. Medium-grained tannins show on the finish, with hints of pepper and slate, and a dollop of citrusy intensity. Drink now through 2025
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Terra de Promissio Vineyard has a medium ruby-purple color and soft scents of rose petals, strawberries and rhubarb with an undercurrent of dusty earth, charcuterie and citrus peel. Medium-bodied, it offers juicy, perfumed red berry fruit with a very finely grained frame, addicting freshness and a long, spicy finish. Lovely!
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.