Ravines Pinot Noir 2016
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Delicate aromas of ripe cherry, red plum, sultry spices and earthiness create a sensual and engaging complexity.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir was aged for ten months in 90% used French oak and comes in at 13.2% alcohol. This was mostly sourced from 16 Falls Vineyard, with about one-fifth of the grapes from White Springs Vineyard. This is a dense, concentrated and powerful Pinot Noir that comes from a warm vintage. Despite that, it also shows good balance and some freshness to go along with the darker fruits, more black cherries than raspberries. Beautifully structured as well, this has a real tannic backbone to support the fine mid-palate depth. It should age very well—owner Morton Hallgren says he still drinks his Pinots back to the beginning (2002). This could really use a couple of years of cellaring. Let's take the aging curve in stages, but it will be interesting to see how this develops. It may yet be entitled to an uptick. And the price is very nice for this quality.
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Wine Spectator
Gently mulled cherry and raspberry fruit is lined with subtle black tea and incense notes. This becomes alluring through the finish, opening steadily in the glass. Drink now through 2020.
Other Vintages
2020-
Wine
Enthusiast
- Decanter
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James
Suckling
Ravines was created by Morten and Lisa Hallgren in 2000. Morten, a French-trained oenologist, came to the Finger Lakes from his family’s centuries-old estate in the South of France. He and his wife and business partner, Lisa, convinced of the potential for fine winemaking in the Finger Lakes, opened their original tasting room on 17 acres of sloped, shale stone soils nestled between two deep ravines on Keuka Lake.
They focus on making fine, classically-styled wines that allow for the cool-climate characteristics to be shown without compromise - creating their own unique expression within the Finger Lakes wine region.
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.”
As the most historic wine-producing region in New York state, winemaking in the Finger Lakes area dates back to the 1820s and today as a region, accounts for 90% of the state’s total wine production.
Its narrow and deep lakes created by the movement of Ice Age glaciers create an environment similar to the classic Riesling-loving regions of Europe, namely Germany and Austria. The Finger Lakes retain summer heat that incidentally warms up cold winter air, making it fall down from the lakes’ steep slopes. When spring comes, the lakes, already cooled by cold winter weather, stave off vine budding until the danger of frost has subsided. The main lakes of the zone, that is those big enough to moderate the climate in this way, are the focal points of prime vineyard areas. They include Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga.
While Riesling has fueled most of the region’s success, today Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc enjoy some attention.