Eden Rift Estate Pinot Noir 2018
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Suckling
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Wine &
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A layered and fine-grained pinot with strawberry and cherry aromas and flavors. Flint and some cranberry and watermelon, too. Pure. Medium to full body, bright acidity and light asphalt to the strawberry and raspberry undertones.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Eden Rift Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir is well-built and lasting on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of rustic earth, savory spices, black fruit, and black tea. Try it with garlic and rosemary-infused roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: June 17, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Pinot Noir Estate is another outstanding wine. Notes of Bing cherries, mulberries, loamy earth, and forest floor all emerge from the glass, and it's medium-bodied, has a rounded, balanced mouthfeel, nicely integrated acidity, and enough structure to keep it drinking well for at least 7-8 years. It's rock solid.
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Wine Enthusiast
Clean lines of plump black raspberry, pastry crust and tarragon make for a delicious nose on this estate bottling. Snappy raspberry flavors kick off the sip, where lilac, wild mint and dried herbs prove both fresh and delicate.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made from Dijon clone vines, the 2018 Pinot Noir Estate has a pale ruby-purple color and scents of spiced rhubarb and black cherries with notes of fragrant earth and tangerine peel. The palate is light-bodied, silky, bright and juicy with spice-laced fruits and a layered finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Vinous and red fruited, of the six 2018s from Eden Rift, this may be the most structured, showing a rosy scent at a distance, and dried cherry and strawberry flavors. There’s much in place but it needs time.
Other Vintages
2017-
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Named one of Wine & Spirits Magazines Top 100 Wineries of 2023
In the careful hands of early pioneers when California was still under Mexico’s flag, Eden Rift is one of the oldest continually operating estates in the US and is home to some of the earliest New World Pinot Noir plantings in 1861. The property’s first vineyards were planted in 1849 by a Bordeaux wine merchant. As the estate came into new ownership, the wines produced swept national and international competitions. Since then, the estate has changed hands several times, at one point producing wines under the label Valliant, belonging to the internationally known Hiram Walker House.
Today, the current proprietor of the estate, Christian Pillsbury, lives in the Dickinson House, a residence on the property fenced in by original Zinfandel plantings from 1906. Drawn to purchase the estate because of a personal connection, Pillsbury sees himself as chaperone of a place deeply important to the lineage of California wine. Before purchasing, Christian and his team researched the property’s daily temperature rhythms, soil, wind patterns and macro and micro climates to find the winery’s main focus, which has come to be Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In addition to wine, the Eden Rift Estate also houses a granite stone mill that produces certified organic olive oil and is open to neighboring wineries for use on their own olive oil production.
With Christian’s vision in toe, he teamed up with venerable winemaker, Cory Waller. Cory is no stranger to American Pinot Noir, having studied under Napa’s Tony Soter and Oregon’s Josh Bergstrom and Jim Prosser. He was also assistant winemaker at the iconic California winery, Calera. Cory is well suited to the uber local project. Born and raised nearby, he boasts local farmers, ranchers and fishermen as some of his closest friends. His winemaking style limits intervention while focusing in the vineyard on vine stress and low yields. Since Christian’s purchase, Eden Rift has received attention from both local and National publications in its first two vintages.
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.”
Part of the larger Central Coast AVA, the valley was historically an important source of grapes for Almaden Vineyards before it was acquired by Constellation Brands in the 1980s. At 1,100 feet, the San Andreas Fault divides the valley so that one side is granite and sandstone, and the other is granite and limestone. Its position along the San Andreas fault makes the region well suited for excellent Central Coast wine production. Top varietals include Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and rose.