Known for their single vineyard Pinot Noirs and focus on cool climate style wines, I was excited to taste this wine selected by Chad Richard, owner and winemaker, for a virtual wine tasting we arranged. The topic was cool climate Pinots, and this was the wine Chad selected for the tasting event.
As mentioned, the majority of their wines are single vineyard, but this was a bottling that they did for distribution to restaurants. They selected fruit from Eden Vineyard in Western Sebastopol for the majority of this blend. It's a small 2.5 acre vineyard on the border of the coastal and Russian River region. They sought to present a very food friendly wine with balanced fruit and nice acidity. Then Covid struck. Too bad for the restaurants, great for our crew of virtual tasters and visitors to the tasting room.
I tasted this wine twice. Once on my own and once during the virtual tasting. It was interesting to see the difference between the two tasting. My initial tasting, I popped and poured. That time in addition to the strong cherry aromas, some herbal qualities came through. It was almost reminiscent of an old world style Pinot. There was earthy savory quality. But the cherry was getting stronger as time went on, with hints of tart cranberry and cherry cola and a faint licorice taking the place of the herbal characteristics I noted earlier.
The second time around, I let the wine sit in glass during the first part of the virtual tasting. It was more fruit forward this time, with the same beautiful cherry and cranberry. The fruit is bright and acidity high in this wine. Definitely a food pairing partner as intended. But also well balanced. Tannin is mild and rounded, and the cherry fruit on the finish lingers nicely.
The Furthermore Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir delivers as a food friendly, crowd friendly wine with a lovely, balanced fruit forward profile. I was lucky that Thanksgiving was coming up, and the hints of Cranberry along with the nice acidity made this a popular bottle at the table.
The Furthermore team's vineyard designate Pinot Noirs are perennial Gold Medal winners at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and I am looking forward to tasting more of their wines.
Here's Chad Richards describing the Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir:
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/644858480
Specifications:
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Appellation: Sonoma Coast
Barrel regime: 10 months 30% new French Oak
Alcohol: 14.2%
Production: 260 cases
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