November 24, 2022 - Red fruit, cherry, raspberry, floral. Delicious with the herbal rack of lamb and especially with the acorn squash with apples, pears, raisins, currants, nutmeg and cinnamon.
April 14, 2021 - This wine is Rocking and Rolling right now! Very nice and kept filling the glass! A Russian River classic!
December 10, 2020 - Last bottle from a 6 purchased direct at release...PnP, drank over an hour with Charlotte.
Bright, translucent ruby color. no real signs of age. Nose showing right away - red fruits, red licorice, savory. Plate showing ripe cherry cola, blackberry profile, floral pastille. Still vibrant & energetic at this stage, has a decent arc in front of it. if wanting to hold. Very much a fruit forward style, may not be for everyone
June 22, 2017 - Dinner and Wine in Spring Lake w Bob M (Spring Lake, NJ): I brought as a contribution to the evening. Bob liked some of the bright new world pinots we had in the past.
From prior notes: "Medium, bright ruby color. Clean and translucent. Incredible nose of red raspberry, savory notes. Expressive and fruit forward palate showing bright red fruits, ripe strawberry, bing cherry, black raspberry, picked up some caramel, burnt sugar on back palate..."
This was nice to drink over the evening, it continued to evolve showing nice secondary flavors, aromatics continued to change. Really nice wine, right in its zone
December 7, 2016 - Christmas Lunch with former colleagues at Chez W (Princeton, NJ): Second bottle, drank before a 2012 Wayfarer. Decanted for about 30 minutes, drank over an hour.
Medium, bright ruby color. Clean and translucent. Incredible nose of red raspberry, savory notes. Expressive and fruit forward palate showing bright red fruits, ripe strawberry, bing cherry, black raspberry, picked up some caramel, burnt sugar on back palate. A lot going on here, classic Rochioli fruit, wine has come together nicely.
You have to like the style, ripe and fruit forward, very California but not syrupy or heavy as some can be. This is in a great spot right now, should have a good arc in front of it if wanting to cellar. Score may go higher in time. Glad we opened this...
October 19, 2014 - Much lighter than the '11.