Seamlessly balanced between silky texture and rich focused fruit with notes of dark bramble fruits and black cherries, this comparatively young wine promises to be one of our finest Pinot Noirs.
95 Points - Wine Advocate, Robert Parker
An absolutely profound Pinot Noir is the 2010 Pinot Noir Reserve, with 48% new oak, aged in French barrels for ten months, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. This also has the same alcoholic potency, 14.5%, as its sibling. However, that’s about the only thing it shares in common. This is just spectacular Pinot Noir, with a DRC-like forest floor, black raspberry and blackberry nose, a deep ruby color and fabulous texture. Beet root and Asian spice give additional complexity to this generously endowed, fleshy, yet exceptionally complex and elegant Pinot Noir. This wine, along with the Chardonnay, gives me high hopes that they’ve got a special site on the Sonoma Coast and are on their way to much greater attention and acclaim.
★★★★½ Excellent - Restaurant Wine
These are refined, elegant Pinots. The Reserve is more subtle and refined, with full body, good balance, a long flavor evolution on the palate, and a persistent finish, tasting of rosehips, cherry, raspberry, vanilla, toast, and oak.
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
Seamlessly balanced between silky texture and rich focused fruit with notes of dark bramble fruits and black cherries, this comparatively young wine promises to be one of our finest Pinot Noirs.
Vineyard Notes
From our mountain vineyard that overlooks the Sonoma Coast and now part of the new Fort Ross-Seaview American Viticultural Area, Fort Ross Vineyard & Winery produces limited quantities of single vineyard, Estate grown, cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinotage. With spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean less than one mile away, the vineyard is divided into 30 separate blocks, one-half to two acres in size, that rapidly fall from 1700 down to 1200 feet above sea level. Owners, Lester and Linda Schwartz and their small crew began preparing the 50 acre vineyard in 1994. It took them 4 years of preparation before they could begin planting the first vines in 1998.
Production Notes
2010 began with a cold and rainy January and February. We began pruning in the middle of February as we try to start as late as possible to delay bud break until the weather at the coast warms up. There were record-breaking low temperatures during spring that led to a late bud break all over California. Ours was even later and took place during warm and stable weather leading to an excellent berry set. Summer was the second coldest in 50 years in Sonoma County. After this cool summer there was an intense heat spike in August. Fortunately our proximity to the ocean minimized the effects of the extreme cold and heat. We anxiously waited through very unstable weather while the flavors developed and began harvest on September 28th. The last grapes were picked on November 2 – and that afternoon the torrential rains began.
Winemaker Notes
The grapes for this Pinot Noir were handpicked during the cool hours of the night in 2 gallon trays. After hand sorting, the fruit was cold soaked for several days and fermented in a combination of 5 and 10 ton tanks. The caps were punched down 1 or 2 times per day, depending on the stage of the fermentation. The wines were then barreled in a combination of 35% new and 65% neutral French oak. Throughout the 10 months of barrel aging, the clones and different vineyard blocks were kept separate to maintain their distinct flavor profiles and structural components as blending elements.
Production
289 cases 750ml
