Winemaker Notes
Perfumed with dark cherry and floral notes, the Terra de Promissio Vineyard has become a perennial favorite. Situated in the wind-swept Petaluma Gap, the vines struggle to set fruit and enjoy a long ripening cycle. The net effect is a wine with complexity and depth. Medium-bodied in weight, this wine seems to gain strength with time as the tannins come together. This is a great wine with ethereal qualities.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Showing its coastal influences, this elegant wine offers black raspberry, plum and cola, with underlying freshness that persists on the lengthy palate. Rounded and showing a balanced richness, it impresses in its complexity and cohesion.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir Terra de Promissio Vineyard is broody on the nose with scents of graphite, woodsmoke, turned earth and licorice over a core of black berry fruit. The palate is soft, spicy, fresh and open with layered, spicy fruits and a long, earth-laced finish.
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Wine Spectator
Lithe, with mouthfilling juiciness to the concentrated red currant and cherry flavors, which are supported by silky tannins and crunchy acidity. Finishes with sandalwood, slate and cooking spice accents. Drink now through 2026.
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.