Winemaker Notes
The old vines in the Weir Vineyard are remarkably consistent and deliver wines of purity and uniqueness. Red fruited aromas with hints of grenadine and carnation lift from the glass. Highlights of fresh herbs add an airiness to the delightful aromatics. Refreshing and bright, the red fruits shine through on the palate. Taut with refined tannins, minerals, and zest acidity, this is a great candidate to age for a few years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2019 Pinot Noir Weir Vineyard offers deep, pure scents of raspberries, lavender, peppercorn, saline and autumn leaves. The medium-bodied palate is delicate yet concentrated, with a powdery, fresh frame, a rocky mineral streak and detailed floral flavors on the very long, spicy finish. This finessed expression comes from vines planted at about 1,200 feet in elevation in the Yorkville Highlands appellation of Mendocino County, where a lack of coastal influence results in extreme diurnal shifts.
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Wine Enthusiast
This full-bodied wine is generous with its black cherry, black currant and black plum flavors. It is rather soft and mouthfilling in texture and shows powerful accents of toasted oak, cinnamon and clove.
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 unique appellation placed in between the warm, Sonoma County Alexander Valley and the cooler Mendocino County's Anderson Valley, the Yorkville Highlands’ gravel soils are ideal for Bordeaux varieties and other full-bodied reds.