|
|
Wine Recommendation
Arista Winery
2005 Pinot Noir, Toboni Vineyards(Russian River Valley)
Talk about hands-on winemaking: Arista Winery winemaker Leslie Sisneros personally walked through each row of the Toboni Vineyard to taste fruit for optimum ripeness. She dropped any cluster that had not reached maturity. Her level of persistence continued, making sure each block of the vineyard, each planted to a different clone, was isolated and treated as an individual vineyard within the vineyard based on the block’s soil type and slope orientation.
When harvest came, the grapes were handpicked before dawn, sorted again, and on to crush. So what did the winery get for all these efforts? Sheer elegance in a bottle, on your nose, and in your mouth. Full bodied with silky tannins, the wine exudes flavours of black cherries and plum with a nuance of oak, spice, and savory herb. There is an underlying earthiness that suggests this Pinot Noir will go great with mushroom, lamb, and winter vegetable dishes.
At just over 100 cases produced, the Toboni Vineyard Pinot Noir is sold on an allotment basis to winery club members with a portion usually available at the winery’s Westside Road tasting room.
Reviewed September 12, 2007 by Michael Lasky.
Other reviewed wines from Arista Winery
The Wine
Winery: Arista Winery |
The Reviewer
Michael Lasky
APPELLATION AMERICA’s Managing Editor, Michael Lasky, has been writing about food and wine for over 20 years. His work has appeared in national magazines such as Playboy, Esquire, GQ, and Parade, and newspapers such as The New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, and the San Francisco Chronicle. His wine reviews focus on the aroma, taste, and visual appeal of what’s in the glass. He is decidedly not a wine snob and prefers to describe its virtues in conversational prose that speaks to everyone from wine neophytes to veteran connoisseurs. He only reviews delicious wines. |