2015 Spring Hill Ranch Pinot Noir

Robert Parker - 95 Points

Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Pinot Noir Springhill Ranch offers beguiling anise, lavender, rose hip tea and fragrant earth notes over a core of raspberry preserves and Bing cherries, plus a waft of cracked black pepper. The elegant, light to medium-bodied Pinot carries a stunning intensity of perfumed berry flavors with very fine, ripe tannins. It has a very long, refreshing finish.

Karen London’s Ranch grows both some of the finest pinot noir on the Sonoma Coast, but also rare Scottish Highland and Waygu cattle. The vineyard is so close to the ocean that it gets warm days and ultra cool nights. The 2015 drought hit this vineyard harder than almost any other. The yields were only 30% of normal. I literally had to beg Karen to give me 1/3 of a ton to make just one barrel. The grapes coming off the de-stemmer were the size of blueberries. With that skin to juice ratio, the Pinot was almost as dark as our Syrah. It has paired beautifully with new Francois French oak. 

Spring Hill Ranch, Sonoma Coast AVA
13.3% alcohol by volume.  
23 cases made.