WINERY RouteStock is an invitation to discover the deep roots of winemaking in Napa and Sonoma, planted firmly at each step of your journey through our vineyard sites. Every glass tells the story of Napa and Sonoma’s remarkable fine wine heritage, from the famous routes that wind between the vineyards, to the roots that produce its world-renowned grapes. An endeavor of enduring Napabased importer Wilson Daniels, RouteStock is established as a product that consistently over-delivers in quality at a very attractive price point.

WINE Since we started producing this wine for the RouteStock portfolio, we have had two consistent vineyard sources: one in the Petaluma Gap AVA and one located 1.5 miles from the coast. With the 2021 vintage, we are delighted to begin including our new estate vineyard, located in the Sebastopol Hills region of Russian River Valley, into the blend. Our estate vineyard makes up approximately 40% of the final blend and the other two sources make up the balance.

2023 marks our third vintage of pinot noir sourced from the Sonoma Coast and our three vineyard sources remain the same, including our estate Moon Dust Vineyard in the Sebastopol Hills area of the southwest part of Sonoma Coast that has 11 acres of 16-year-old pinot noir vines with six different clones. Our estate vineyard is augmented with two of our dedicated grape growers, one in the southeast part of the Sonoma Coast not far from the town of Sonoma and the other in the far northwest section.

After the brutal fires of 2020, the ongoing drought in 2021 that drastically reduced the crop, and the extreme heat event of 2022, the 2023 vintage seemed like a dream come true! A nicely wet winter set a good healthy crop for 2023 in all three of our Sonoma Coast pinot noir vineyards. The rain lasted longer than “normal” and combined with cooler than normal temperatures pushed budbreak and bloom back about one month from 2022. The growing season remained cool throughout the summer with temperatures mostly in the 70’s and 80’s. Harvest started 29 days later than in 2022 and we harvested all three vineyards in a busy eight-day stretch.

Each vineyard was fermented using ambient yeast in opentop fermenters with about 10% whole clusters until dry. The wine was lightly pressed into 100% French oak with 12% being new barrels. A natural malo-lactic fermentation was allowed to occur. The wine remained in barrel without racking, on the gross lees, for the entire nine months to create vibrancy, tension and depth. No commercial yeast, yeast nutrient (diammonium phosphate), malo-lactic culture, concentrates, mega-purple, powdered tannins or oak products were used.

The wine has a beautiful Burgundy color with spicy aromas of cardamom, red fruit, soy sauce and bay laurel. The flavors pop with red fruits, spice, white pepper, orange peel and black tea. The wine is dry, complex, medium-bodied, silky and seductive, all with savory lingering finish.