2016 Wildcat Mountain Magnum

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