Eden Rift Lansdale Pinot Noir 2018
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine &
Spirits
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine has an intense, dark hue with overt black and blue tones in the bouquet.
Aromas of black cherry, blueberry, sagebrush and baking spices exude from the glass. These notes stay true on the palate as flavors of blackberry, forest floor, cherry pit and oak carry through. Replete with acidity, the tannins are firm with an expansive attack that will allow this wine to age in the cellar.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Blackberry, dried strawberry and black cherry. Some stem, too. Full-bodied, bright and polished. Crushed-stone and granite undertones. Rocky and salty. Calera clone. Drinkable now, but needs two or three years to open.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Lansdale Block offers broody black and blue berries, turned earth, tar and violet top notes. The palate is medium-bodied, firmly structured and broody, packed with dark fruits and finishing long and fresh. This should age well in bottle.
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Wine Enthusiast
From a block of the Calera clone that yielded less than 1.3 tons per acre, this bottling offers aromas of boysenberry, iron, loam and gamy funk on the nose. Fairly heavy, rocky tannins frame the palate, where blistered black plum and more boysenberry meet with dried meat and lavender flavors. Drink 2021–2033.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Vibrant red and blue fruits, spring flowers, blood orange, and graphite notes all emerge from the 2018 Pinot Noir Lansdale Block, which is medium-bodied and has a tight, focused texture, ripe tannins, and a great finish. Beautifully done, it’s going to benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and keep for a decade.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine smells of the mountains where the vines are planted—sun-warmed rocks and black plum flavors, along with violet scents, giving way to iron and dust.
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.