94 Points: Meridith May The Tasting Panel - May 2024

“Rose petals sprinkled with white pepper and high tones of cranberry-lime report a succulent, juicy mouthfeel. Even tones of black tea and cherry are enveloped within its elegant persona. Thale’s Vineyard surrounds the winery’s new home in the northern end of the Russian River Valley.”

92 Points: Jim Gordon Wine Enthusiast Advance Buying Guide - April 2024

“Good, concentrated cherry flavors and a mouthwatering texture align this medium-bodied wine for myriad food pair¬ings from mushrooms to salmon to roast chicken. Moderate tannins brace the red and black cherries, cranberries and cloves that open up as you sip."

The 2021 vintage delivered a moderate and consistent growing season for most of Sonoma County, leading to a smooth, easily manageable harvest. While the continuation of drought conditions led to slightly reduced yields, the overall quality and concentration of the grapes were exceptional. Thale’s Vineyard was harvested on three different days: September 3, 4, and 8 of 2021. Grapes from seven of the 11 blocks were used to create this complex and delicious blend.

Our Thale’s Vineyard is located in the northernmost part of the Russian River Valley in an area known as the Middle Reach. Named after Steve MacRostie’s wife, Thale (pronounced Thay-lee), this has been MacRostie’s estate vineyard since 2013. The 14-acre property is planted as 11 different blocks. Each block varies in clone, aspect, soil type and year planted, offering great complexity and blending opportunities from the site.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 14.40%
• cases made:

  906 Cases

• bottling date: 08/17/2022
• aging:

  Aged 10 months in French oak, 48% new, 15% one-year-old

• fermentation:

  Gently desteemed into open-top fermenters; three day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

94 Points: Meridith May The Tasting Panel - December 2023

“Striking notes of sea-salted rose petals in aspic. Spiced mulberry has a fragrant holiday charm, with cherrywood gently tripping on the tongue. The vineyard, 1200 feet in elevation, is centered above the Pacific coastline.”

91 Points: Jim Gordon Wine Enthusiast Advance Buying Guide - April 2024

“This sturdy, straight¬forward wine gets the job done with good red and black cherry flavors, a tangy texture and moderate tannins for pairing with richer dishes. Its pleasures are subtle and its balance is perfect.”

The 2021 vintage delivered a moderate and consistent growing season for most of Sonoma County, leading to a smooth, easily manageable harvest. While the continuation of drought conditions led to slightly reduced yields, the overall quality and concentration of the grapes were exceptional. The grapes from Walala were harvested by hand in the cool evening hours of September 8th, 2021.

Walala Vineyard is located in the far northwestern reaches of Sonoma County in the new West Sonoma Coast AVA. It is a majestic site located at the rugged coastline of the Pacific Ocean, near the town of Annapolis where cool maritime breezes provide optimal growing conditions for Pinot Noir. At 1200 feet of elevation, it is positioned above the fog line with bountiful sunshine to ripen the grapes even given the extremely cool temperatures. We selected grapes from two different blocks of Walala planted to two different clones: 115 and 828. The soils are rocky and well-drained, which accentuates the intensity and rustic nature of the aromas and flavors.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 14.40%
• cases made:

  429 Cases

• bottling date: 07/28/2022
• aging:

  Aged 10 months in French oak, 35% new, 35% one-year-old

• fermentation:

  Gently destemmed into open-top fermenters; three-day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

The 2022 vintage was impacted by a third consecutive year of drought that resulted in a reduction in yields from 10-30%. The growing season was temperate, which in grape growing means we were on track, or ahead of normal growth. Then we saw some heat spikes that prompted our first picks. 2022 was a year for vintage-to-vintage variation and differentiation between vineyards. The grapes for this wine came from two prized blocks: Arrow Block and Saddle Block. Both were planted to Clone 667, in 2000 and 1998 respectively, and both were harvested on August 23rd, 2022.

The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. On Wildcat Mountain, the vines dig into the sparse volcanic soil and stand firm against the strong winds that race in off of the Pacific Ocean most afternoons. This fog-shrouded mountaintop vineyard is a classic Sonoma Coast site—cool and challenging—and produces wines of great distinction.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 13.3%
• cases made:

  553 Cases

• bottling date: 07/31/2023
• aging:

  Aged 10 months in French oak, 33% new oak and 29% one-year-old

• fermentation:

  Gently desteemed into open-top fermenters; three day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

90 Points: Wine Review Online

The 2014 vintage allowed flavors to develop and show expressively. The vineyards were farmed meticulously in order to keep the vigorous canopy that develops in the famed-Goldridge Soil- balanced with the crop load on the vines. When done correctly pure fruit and clarity of Russian River Valley vineyards shines through, as displayed in this wine. The fruit was hand-harvested on three different days: September 6th, September 8thand September 22ndof 2014. The four distinct harvest dates indicate the individual nature of each site and what each lends to the complexity of this wine.

This wine is inspired by our exploration into the more western reaches of the Sonoma Coast appellation. It exemplifies the fruit-driven Pinot Noir and concentrated rich flavors that one sees in this region. We work with a number of different vineyards in the Russian River Valley including our own, Thale’s. This wine was blended from fruit from two Dutton properties, Cummings Vineyard, and a small portion from Thale’s Vineyard.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 14.2%
• bottling date: 08/15/2015
• aging:

  Aged 10 months in French oak

• fermentation:

  Gently desteemed into open-top fermenters; three day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

93 Points: Lisa Perrotti-Brown Wine Advocate - June 2018

“The 2016 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir is pale ruby-purple in color and scented of freshly crushed raspberries, wild strawberries and cranberries with hints of violets, fertile loam, underbrush and truffles. Medium-bodied with wonderful elegance and a beautiful quiet intensity, it has a solid frame of finely grained tannins and great freshness, finishing long.”

91 Points: Josh Greene Wine & Spirits - April 2019

“Meaty black-cherry flavors integrate with this wine’s smoky oak, the round, supple fruit winning out in the end. There’s an umami, ramen-broth character to the tannins, adding to the wine’s clean richness and nourishing feel. Steve MacRostie planted this vineyard in 1998, in the fog and wind of the Petaluma Gap.”

90 Points: Virginie Boone Wine Enthusiast - February 2019

“This is a soft, delicate and lightly styled red from the appellation, earthy and quietly rich in caramelized oak and baked cherry. It has a nice balance of nutmeg and cola on the finish.”

The 2016 vintage started out with an early bud break followed by a warm growing season. Just when we were about to start picking we had a cool spell in late August. This helped slow things down and spread out the harvest. The grapes for our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Pinot Noir came from a few different blocks of Wildcat Mountain. Clone 667 from the Arrow and Saddle blocks made up the majority of the blend, with a small amount being Pommard Clone 5. All of these grapes were hand harvested in the cool early mornings on different days from September 9th through September 22nd, 2016.

The grapes for this Pinot Noir came exclusively from our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, owned by Steve MacRostie and his partners Nancy and Tony Lilly. There, the vines dig into the sparse volcanic soil and stand firm against the strong winds that race in off of the Pacific Ocean most afternoons. This fog-shrouded mountaintop vineyard is a classic Sonoma Coast site—cool and challenging—and produces wines of great distinction.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 14.10%
• bottling date: 08/17/2017
• aging:

  Aged 10 months in French oak

• fermentation:

  Gently desteemed into open-top fermenters; three day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

91 Points: Wine & Spirits

The 2017 vintage followed a cool wet winter. The soils were wet and rich, which required meticulous care with cover crop management and canopy management. This vineyard is planted to an unusual array of different clones from Mary Elke’s history. The two clones in this blend are the Stang Davis clone and the VVM clone (named for Vyborny Vineyard Management, from whom Mary sourced budwood). The fruit was hand-harvested at night on two distinct dates due to differences in ripening—September 12th and 20th of 2017.

Donnelly Creek was planted by a renowned grape grower, Mary Elke, in 1991. The vineyard is located in Anderson Valley near the town of Boonville. It is just 18 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean on an alluvial terrace alongside Anderson Creek.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 14.20%
• bottling date: 07/31/2018
• aging:

  Aged 10 months in French oak, 30% new and 30% one-year-old

• fermentation:

  Gently destemmed into open-top fermenters; three-day cold soak; cap management included pump-overs & punch-downs

90 Points: Wine Advocate

90 Points: Wine Enthusiast

Putnam Vineyard is located on the far Sonoma Coast, just 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the very northwestern part of the appellation near the town of Annapolis. There, cool maritime breezes and the vineyard’s proximity to the Pacific provide optimal growing conditions for Pinot Noir. At 580 feet in elevation, the Putnam’s cool marine climate creates just the right amount of stress on the vines to produce exceptional wines.

• composition:

  100% Pinot Noir

• alcohol: 14.7%