Early in October, Wine By Appointment spent a most enjoyable morning sampling the marvelous Pinot Noirs presented at the annual 2019 Pinot On The River in downtown Santa Rosa. With 30 wineries featuring their best Pinot Noir wines, it was heaven for devotees of the red grape. We ran across some of our old favorites and quickly became smitten with some new finds. While all the wine we sampled was superlative, the following wineries offered some particularly enchanting wines:
Black Kite Cellars www.blackcellars.com:
Their distinctive wine label caught my eye as we sauntered down rows of winery kiosks and bottle-lined tables. Intrigued, we stopped for a sip and are quite glad we did. Black Kite Cellars is a small family owned winery producing impressive Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. Sourcing grapes from Anderson Family, Sonoma Coast and Santa Lucia Highlands, it is easy to understand why Black Kite wines consistently win high accolades from such publications as Wine Spectator.
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Chenoweth Wines www.chenowethwines.com/
Chenoweth Wines is another small family owned winery who actually are the winemakers. The Chenoweth family has been farming their land for the last 150 years. In 2000, they uprooted their Apple orchard and planted their first vineyard of Pinot Noir and, boy howdy, are we glad they did. We were lucky enough to sample several of their Bootlegger’s Hill wine, and it’s easy to see why Chenoweth has been deemed an up and coming winery by experts.
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Clouds Rest Estate Vineyards www.cloudsrest.com
Clouds Rest Estate Vineyards is a small family owned winery producing single vineyard Pinot Noir wines primarily from the. Sonoma Coast. Their vineyard soars 1250 feet on Sonoma Mountain….a heady place for heady wines and well-deserving of the accolades earned from Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate.
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Domaine De La Riviére www.domaineriviere.com
On the home page of Domaine De La Riviére’s website states that they are dedicated to producing extraordinary Russian River Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Rosé wines . We enthusiastically say that they have achieved their goal. The winery produces elegant Pinot Noir wines that are to be savored over a good meal.
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Sojourn Cellars www.sojourncellars.com
Sojourn Cellars was another new find for us. The winery sources grapes from some of the most renowned Pinot Noir vineyards Gap’s Crown, Sangiacomo, Walala, and Rodger’s Creek, and the results are frankly yummy. This is a real gem of a winery and well-worth a follow-up visit to their tasting salon.
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Trecini Winery www.treciniwinery.com/
Trecini Winery has great Pinot Noir wine. Another first for me, I have to say that they have achieved their goal stated on their website: “We believe the grapes should express themselves without excessive manipulation, therefore letting “the wine speak for itself.“ And, their wine does speak for itself, loudly!. This is another tasting salon on our list to visit.
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Walt Wines www.waltwines.com/
The Hall family (of Hall wines) acquired Roessler Cellars in 2010, and Walt Wines came into being. WALT is dedicated to producing wine from single vineyard sites that include some of the premier Pinot Noir areas of California and Oregon. Their wines are well-worth investigating as their Santa Rita Hills wines and Shea Vineyard wines are particularly delightful.
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I would be remiss to end this story without a shout-out to two of our favorite Pinot wineries, both of whom were participating in the event: Furthermore Wines www.furthermorewines.com and Papapietro Perry Winery www.papapietro-perry.com. Both have exquisite wines and well-worth a trip to their terrific wineries for a sip and chat.
Until next time...