Estate Pinot Noir Reviews

Scents of blackberry and raspberry jam highlight the aroma, yet this is snappier and livelier on the palate, turning pleasantly supple and silky, gliding along on the finish. 

Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Pinot Noir Estate opens with fragrant lavender and rose petal notes over a core of crushed cranberries, pomegranate and rhubarb plus hints of forest floor and dusty soil. Medium to full-bodied and packed with red fruit and earth layers, it has a firm frame of grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and perfumed. 

Tightly wound, focused on an intense core of loamy earth, dusty cedary oak and dried berry flavors, fanning out to anise and nutmeg notes. Ends with a lingering, layered finish. Drink now through 2023.

Red Tightly wound, focused on an intense core of loamy earth, dusty cedary oak and dried berry flavors, fanning out to anise and nutmeg notes. Ends with a lingering, layered finish. Drink now through 2023.—J.L.

Medium ruby-purple in color, the 2014 Pinot Noir Estate offers earth and dried herb notes to begin, giving way to a core of red and black cherries and mulberries, plus suggestions of lavender and garrigue. Full-bodied and richly fruited in the mouth, it has a great backbone of grainy tannins and refreshing acid supporting the generous red and black berry flavors, finishing long and earthy.

Moderate reddish purple color in the glass. A regal nose leads off with aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, forest floor, spice and toast. Plush and full-bodied in the mouth with accommodating tannic backbone, offering layers of black raspberry, blackberry and plum fruits accented with spice and dark chocolate. Almost too much of a good thing. Classy, with good acidity lifting the fruit load, finishing uncommonly long and generous. Best to lock this wine away for a few years.

Bedecked with a large gold fleur-de-lis on the bottle, this wine is showy in flavor too, a rich, ripe celebration of California exuberance, full bodied in cranberry, cherry, orange and blackberry fruitiness. —V.B.  

Deep, dark, rich and layered, with tiers of pure, focused blackberry, boysenberry and raspberry fruit, gaining depth and dimension on the finish. Drink now through 2022. 375 cases made.