The popular Pinot Noir was fruity, to be sure, with a pleasant acidity. The Josh Cellars Pinot Noir tasted varietally correct, but indistinct, or “gray,” in the words of tasting cognoscenti. It was light, but indistinct it didn’t “leap out of the glass.” This isn’t to suggest that it was varietally incorrect or unpleasant - just that it wasn’t clear or well-defined. The nose is fruity, suggesting pluot - a cross between a plum and an apricot. However, we’ve assumed that the grapes in this Josh Cellars 2020 vintage escaped this fate.ĭarker than the Flowers Pinot above, the Josh Cellars Pinot is almost a shade of amethyst, while still being quite translucent. Due to wildfires in 2020, many vineyards were tainted by smoke, ruining crops. As such, it’s much harder to determine overall characteristics for it. This is backed by a white peppery finish with pomegranate-like acidity.Ģ020 Josh Pinot Noir from the Central Coast of CaliforniaĬalifornia’s Central Coast is an extremely large AVA, encompassing 6.8 million acres. We found that, following through on the nose, the Flowers Pinot tasted of fresh cranberry and bits of clove and spices. It coated the mouth, but revealed a prominent hole in the middle of the palate. The mouthfeel of the Flowers Pinot Noir was rich and leathery. The cranberry hint is characteristic of the Sonoma Coast. Also, there were notes of licorice and/or fennel, as well as a hint of fresh cranberries. Feral/animale aspects leap out, followed by a sagebrush scent not commonly associated with Sonoma Coast wines, which can be very Burgundian in style. The Flowers Pinot Noir wine is beautiful and gem-like in color it’s deep ruby red, with just a touch of purple. Unfortunately, their popular Sea View Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir could not be acquired for this review. The ocean fog cools this latter acreage, which is planted almost entirely with Pinot Noir, with the exception of two acres of Chardonnay and 1.7 acres of Pinot Meunier. This vineyard is on Smith Ridge, roughly 1,600 feet above sea level. Besides this Pinot, which specifically comes from their Camp Meeting Ridge Vineyard, they also produce a Pinot Noir from their Sea View Ridge Vineyard. This is an area of about half a million acres, of which about 60,000 acres are planted vineyards.

The Flowers Pinot Noir is from the Sonoma Coast (California) AVA.

And we’ll see if this trait has any discernible bearing on color, nose, taste, etc. We’ll work our way down to the smallest AVA (Sonoma Mountain) to compare Pinots. In this review, the highest-ranking of these Pinot Noirs on Google is also from the largest AVA (California). By contrast, the smaller an AVA is, the easier it will be to typify its grapes and predict the characteristics of its wines. So, again, there isn’t much that can be ascertained from this information simply because of the diversity of those regions’ viticultural output. Some non-state AVAs (such as California’s Central Coast) are still nonetheless the sizes of small states. Thus, a very large, whole-state AVA, such as California, won’t give you much of a clue about a wine (even a Pinot). The simple answer is that the larger the AVA is in terms of area, the more difficult it will be to characterize the wine. In tasting wines (and these Pinot Noir wines, specifically), a question that often recurs is what difference the AVA (or American Viticultural Area, which refers to where the grapes for the wine were grown) makes. Popular Pinot Noir and AVA Wine Definition

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