Sonoma Cutrer 2018 Pinot Noir, Grower-Vintner, Russian River Valley

99 Points! Best of Show Red Wine in the North Coast Wine Challenge 2021!!
An iconic winery that created a cult following for its Russian River Valley wines back in the 1980's Sonoma-Cutrer is still going strong and producing outstanding wines. Its uncompromising methods of vineyard management, grape oversight and cellar maturation are the winemaking principles that allow Sonoma-Cutrer to create wines unlike any other. For this vintage, their own Owsley and Vine Hill vineyards in the Russian River Valley provided the Pinot Noir grapes. Owsley ranch, with its dramatic temperature changes from warm days to cool, foggy nights, creates concentrated and complex flavors in the grapes. Vine Hill vineyard, with its more than 400-feet elevation change, allows each ridge, slope, and valley in the vineyard to contribute unique characteristics to the grapes.

Grapes are picked by hand early each morning into small bins and hand-sorted before a gentle destemming. During the four-day cold soak and the eight- to twelve-day fermentation, the wine is punched down by hand in small, open-top fermenters. On completion of fermentation, the wine is gently basket pressed and gravity racked into the barrels. The wine aged in a regimen of one-third each of new, one-year and two-year-old French oak for 11 months.

Awarded Best of Show Red Wine and a 99 Point score in the 2021 North Coast Wine Challenge. This wine shows a beautiful, rich ruby-purple hue. As a true classic Russian River Pinot Noir, the wine expresses aromas and flavors of lush red and blackberry fruit. As you swirl the wine in your glass, you will open up scents of vanilla, baking spice, licorice, dark chocolate and black tea with just a hint of earth. On the palate, you will find the wine to be elegantly structured with fine grain tannins that add to its intensity. Sumptuous black cherry flavors mingle with the balanced acidity to make this deliciously enjoyable.