Greenwood Ridge Vineyards

This is a small-production, lovingly produced Pinot Noir from an unusual place: high up on a ridge between Anderson Valley and the Pacific Ocean. The view from the vineyard includes the Sonoma Coast appellation, which is much better known for Pinot Noir than Mendocino Ridge. Greenwood Ridge is the name of the winery and the elevated terroir it occupies, and this wine is a good ambassador for both. It’s also a strong statement that true terroirs can produce hedonistic wines without slathering on the wood and extract – and you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for them, either.

Aromatically, the wine emphasizes sweet, rich red fruit aromas with some black cherry in it, plus savory herbs and baking spice. In your mouth it’s all about plush fruit and fleshy texture and immediate gratification. There’s plenty of stuffing and the wine doesn’t so much spread across your palate as fill your whole tasting chamber. The wine was aged in French oak, which gives the finish a more overt vanilla quality than the winemaker probably wanted, but that will dissipate with time. This is a fairly young wine that will improve for at least another four or five years. That is, if the hedonist in you doesn’t drive you to drink it first.

Reviewed May 17, 2007 by Thom Elkjer.