Avid Vineyard Pinot Noir 2019
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James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The grapes are grown at the winery's vineyard in the Petaluma Gap, where sunshine, fog, and Pacific Ocean winds meet. That combination of fog, wind, and terroir together with meticulous vineyard management and winemaking are integral parts of this wine.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Raspberries, sour cherries, sweet licorice, bay leaves and vanilla on the nose. Some oyster shell. Medium- to full-bodied with silky tannins and a plush palate. Savory, spicy finish. Drink or hold.
Other Vintages
2017-
Wilfred
Wong -
Wine
Enthusiast
Avid Pinot Noir is produced with grapes from our Petaluma Gap Vineyard in Sonoma County California.
Touched by the warmth of the golden Californian sun, swirled by dainty wisps of fog, and caressed by soft, salty winds, the Petaluma Gap is a beautifully unique place that produces a beautifully unique wine.
Spanning Sonoma and Marin Counties, 32 miles north of San Francisco, this inland valley provides the perfect conditions for growing wine grapes. It's a newly-approved AVA (American Viticultural Area) that's fast becoming the superstar of the wine scene. The temperature here can shift 50 degrees throughout a single day - but it's the region's famous wind that creates the grapes' incredible, unique flavor.
The coastal influence on the terroir in the Petaluma Gap is undeniable, with the Pacific Ocean breezes being integral to the balanced flavor and aroma of the end product. The result of this pure, wild happenstance of nature is a smooth, elegant wine that's rich with the taste of plump dark fruits, warm comforting spices, and a deeper underlying earthiness.
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.