This wine presents a wonderful juxtaposition of fruit and savory notes. The Rochioli Riverblock is dynamic with berry overtones and underlying hints of fennel. The wine builds toward the mid-palate and berry flavors and earth tones cling all the way to the finish. With the warm growing season, the tannins achieved another level of maturity in this stalwart site resulting in refinement and precision in this offering.
2017 Rochioli Riverblock Vineyard Pinot Noir
Reviews
93 / Wine Spectator
Rich and powerful, with a plush texture to the richly spiced plum compote and cherry tart flavors. Dried beef accents show midpalate, leading to a finish filled with savory spice notes. Drink now through 2024. 766 cases made. — KM
96 / Wine & Spirits
We tasted a lot of Russian River Valley pinot noir over the course of several days and this one stood out as classical. It’s a wine with both stamina and depths to its flavors, reverberating long after each sip, as if you’d been listening to digitized jazz for a while, then decided to play Stan Getz on vinyl and the sound filled the room in a completely different way. “Coming home to RRV,” I wrote. “This tastes like Rochioli in its richness and layered-soil verve.” It might surprise some rock-head terroirists that a wine grown in layers of sand washed off the river could offer so much distinction, and yet this is one of the most identifiable pinot noirs in California. It’s distinctly beautiful in the cool, balanced ripeness of the fruit Joe Rochioli, Jr., farms and the elegant, fern-green freshness winemaker Jeff Mangahas retains in the wine, the protocols built around Rochioli fruit since 1980—such as foot treading, and fermentation with a local yeast that Burt Williams isolated— seeming to play invisibly into this wine’s stature. A California collectible deserving a place in your cellar. Reviewed by Joshua Greene.
- Alcohol
- 14.1%
- pH
- 3.61
- TA
- 0.61g/100mL
- Barrel Aging
- 16 months
- Barrel Selection
- 74% new, 26% 1 yr.
When to Drink
2020-2027
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