Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The famed winery comes a bit south to make this earthy, savory wine, with smoked sage, leather, forest floor, cherry and slate on the nose. The palate packs elegantly tart cranberry and pure flavors of sage-smoked wild cherry with the juicy elements of an herb-crusted pork tenderloin roast.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
The Vista Verde bottlings have always been outliers in the Willams Selyem portfolio and have typically shown a slightly heavier gait, yet this latest offering is buoyant and bright even as it conveys lots of richness and fruity mass. It is supple on entry and firms as it goes with a lengthy, ripe-tasting finish, but it never nears the brink of being overdone and is on a very clear varietal track from front to back. While its fleshier aspects make it approachable now, it is neatly balanced and there is no need for hasty drinking.
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.”
Taking advantage of the cool Pacific breezes that arrive via gaps between the Gabilan Range and the Santa Lucia Mountains, San Benito AVA is a great Central coast source for cool climate whites and Pinot noir.