That is correct
Thanks!
I had a 2022 Sonoma Coast last night and itās absolutely delicious.
Drink or hold, both will work.
2011 Sonoma Coast the other night, still going strong. Cellartracker shows I paid $25, what a deal!
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For several years, I was drinking my RM Sonoma Coast pinots 3-4 years after the vintage. Then I had one 6-7 years post vintage and was surprised by how good it was. Definitely a wine that can improve with time in the cellar, and at a great price.
Age these suckersā¦they are wonderful!
- 2004 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (6/5/2022)
Only allocated 3 bottles of the SC a year, I usually suck them down way too quickly, as they are SO good right out the gate! 2019ās long gone, so to try any with age, I have to go secondary. This is the oldest RM Iāve had to dateā¦cork was sawdustā¦decanted the pieces out then put back in bottle for 30minsā¦gorgeous and intense nose of crushed tart berries, sour tangerine, dried roses, wild underbrush, cinnamon stick, little sous boisā¦really WILD nose! Very cloudy, rusty ruby and orange colorā¦with specs of corkā¦in the mouth itās just as wild as the nose! Tart and puckering with cherry sours and orange/grapefruitā¦still very bright with a nice snap of acidityā¦fruit drying a little, but still holding on in a dried candied fruit fashionā¦killer exotics of sassafras, smoked vines, xmas spices, whole cluster funk, coffee grounds. The brightness and acid rush is definitely the player hereā¦doesnāt have the depth and expressive complexity as the 06 Summa/OV I had in 2020ā¦but for a cheapo entry level AVA at 18yrs oldā¦I think this wine rocks! (94 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
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Winter 2025
Thereās a lot of joy out on the Sonoma Coast these days. We usually compare what we are releasing to what has come before it but here that just wouldnāt be fair. Itās hard to find an issue with anything we experienced in 2023 except for learning to be patient again. This was a long, protracted season without much weather trauma to interrupt its gentle progression. The Pinot Noir crop on the west Sonoma Coast was small which always exposes us to risks related to late summer heat spikes. None, thankfully, ever materialized. Instead, getting to the finish line, with some sites just beginning veraison in early September, was the bigger concern. In 2022, Pinot harvest commenced August 22nd. In 2023, we began September 27th, a full five weeks later. A couple light rains on back-to-back Saturdays in October necessitated some canopy management as days turned cooler and shorter but that was about it. Wines came in fully mature at much lower brix with perfectly preserved acidities. Sitting here tasting these 9 wines reminds me of tasting right before bottling and remarking just how solid everything was. As much as you want to love everything you make, most years there are a couple efforts that arenāt as compelling as you might like. I couldnāt find that wine with the 2023s. The brightness of the fruit, the light touch of ripe, skin tannin and the piercing acidity prolonging the finish of the entire line up is why everyone is saying such great things about the vintage. The quality of the raw material in 2023 was too high not to deliver something extraordinary.
The Wines
2023 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 1165 cases
The color of this wine is really a testament to the complete development of fruit in 2023. I must admit though when I opened my first bottle back in November, the complexion struck me as something from a much warmer year. One year removed from harvest, I wondered if I had misremembered what this vintage truly was? A quick smell and all the goodness of 2023 returned, the bright red fruits, a bit of orange peel, savory mint and some pine perfume. In short, nothing that indicates a hotter year. Like 2022, this is almost entirely Riddle Vineyard with a few barrels of block 3 from Bodega Thieriot (which is probably where the color comes from). That is where the similarity ends. The 2023 is acid and tannin first then the seamless coastal fruit kicks in. I want to say this is a drinker but thereās so much going on I really canāt tell. What it is and what we always hope it will be is an early insight into the area. Itās full of gravelly earth, spring flowers, brooding dark fruits, licorice and spicy herbs.
2023 Rivers-Marie Bearwallow Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley, 360 cases
This is the most complete Bearwallow to date. Iāve always liked this wine young, but it always has a hole in it somewhere that needs time to fill in. Maybe sometimes the tannin is bit aggressive, the savory elements common to the area suppress the fruit or the wineās just too rich but not here. Everything feels so much more balanced in the 2023. Every element from all past vintages is there but not one trait dominates the blend. Wild herbs, spearmint, lightly roasted meat, black tea and an earthy minerality shoot through the palate. The color is a bit lighter than normal, but like a lot of great Pinots, itās in no way indicative of the palate impact. Alcohol here is also lighter which is a common theme in 2023.
2023 Rivers-Marie Silver Eagle Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 347 cases
Every August when all 9 Pinots are in tank, I like to invite friends over for a quick preview tasting before the wines go to bottle. Itās always a lot of fun and a good distraction from the looming harvest. For me, I like the feedback. I have a very singular way of seeing these wines no doubt colored by all the experiences that go into making them. The biggest revelation in the lineup for the 2023s was the Silver Eagle Pinot. It doesnāt mean it was the best wine in the vintage, more that it outstripped our expectations more than the other bottlings. Three wines in and I feel like Iām already repeating myself but itās the completeness of the wine that sets it apart from other vintages. There are simply no rough edges to the wine. Fermentation protocols were roughly the same as previous years. 15% whole cluster went into this combination of VR, Calera and Swan clones and the wine saw 20% new oak. Purple flowers dominate the aromatics until a little savory note from the stems kick in. The stems provide texture to the palate cutting into the generous fruit common for Silver Eagle. Plums, black raspberries, gunpowder, white pepper and sweet herbs lead to the usual forward expression of this site.
2023 Rivers-Marie Joy Road Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 425 cases
This wine may be the most classic west Sonoma Coast wine in the portfolio. Itās so purely cool climate Pinot Noir from the first sniff to the finish. The fruit falls completely on the red side of the spectrum, the color is decidedly medium, the texture has a crunchy, mouthwatering snap and the finish is framed entirely by acidity. This complete experience is created partly by the wild mix of clones throughout this tightly planted, 3-acre parcel. We vinify everything separately and we certainly have our favorites, but the sum here outstrips any of the single plots. Raspberries and pomegranate are the first fruits that come up on the palate giving the wine a heightened sense of acidity. Anise, licorice and wood smoke add a savory tilt before all the natural acidity of the vintage kicks back in. Itās only been three vintages so far, but this is the best effort from this vineyard to date.
2023 Rivers-Marie Occidental Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 325 cases
The most aromatically complex wine, the 2023 Occidental Ridge feels more fully realized than any other wine in the lineup. Weāve been calling this our co-flagship for some time now and this edition further cements that title. I really like the texture in this wine, thereās a nice prominence of acid and tannin that makes this wine feel very serious. The 10% whole cluster helps with structure while balancing the naturally low pH the site offers up every year. That abundant acidity keeps this wine mouthwateringly fresh and light on the palate. A nice mix of red and black fruits, the flavor profile features elements of black raspberries, black cherries and redcurrants before moving into the traditional crushed mint and white flowers that begin on the nose. Itās hard to say this is backwards because it has some much joy on the palate, but it may end up being the longest-lived wine from 2023.
2023 Rivers-Marie Bodega Thieriot Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 242 cases
This coveted Freestone ridge site has everything going for it except yield. This is our shyest producer in 2023. Our 6 acres produced 6.068 tons in total with 1.35 of those going into the Sonoma Coast bottling. The 10 barrels that make up this wine reflect all the greatest attributes of the vintage: a saturated red complexion, focused, brooding aromatics and a fresh red fruit palate that feels fully realized. The entire vineyard came in October 13th making it the penultimate Pinot Noir pick for 2023. Like Platt, this wine tends toward a darker red hue owing to the stresses presented by the site and the small berry nature of the Calera clone. The initial nose is a bit backwards leaning into a slightly smoky, reductive character that needs a little swirling to pop open. The fruit character follows suit with a darker, incense and black tea note that finally opens into iron-laced black raspberries, rosehips and crushed violets. This is a baby Platt for now but with a little more vine age it should be every bit as good as its next-door neighbor.
2023 Rivers-Marie Platt Vineyard Sonoma Coast, 70 cases
Exciting times out at Platt in 2023. The Platt Estate project is now well underway coinciding beautifully with the vineyard coming back into full health. Also, Rivers-Marie, as of this vintage, is now the only grape buyer at Platt. We are in our same 1.75-acre Calera clone block isolated in a small pocket of redwoods in the southeastern part of the property. Yields in west Sonoma Coast for Pinot Noir were small in 2023 so there still wasnāt much to harvest but what did come in was healthier, more consistent in its ripeness and the product of a near ideal growing season. Instead of the 2 barrels in 2022, we produced a whopping 3 in 2023. The first thing you notice here is the color, always a saturated garnet due to the small berries and thick skins generated by this wind-blown site. Savory characters dominate the early palate, roasted nuts, scorched earth and purple violets finally give way to a mix of red and black fruits that finishes with a touch of wood smoke and a Burgundian like crunchiness. Itās good to see this site back on an upward trajectory under the careful eye of the team at AXA Millesimes.
2023 Rivers-Marie Summa Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 325 cases
This was picked October 15th; thereās no guarantee October 15th is a harvest day out on the far west Sonoma Coast. This speaks volumes for the quality of the growing season in 2023. Coming in at a fully mature 22.8 brix, this version of the Summa āregularā is less deep pitched and resinous than the vintages that directly precede it. This shares more with Summa Old Vines in terms of color, aroma and palate than any vintage I can remember. It still has a slightly more vertical feel to its build, but it is more ethereal and expansive young. I think itās more a function of the year but it also a crunchier fruit profile that clicks in before the Summa signature of red/orange fruits, sous bois, pine and baking spice finishes the palate. The lingering acidity, another hallmark of the year, helps keep this mouthwateringly pure to the varietal and site.
2023 Rivers-Marie Summa Old Vines Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 125 cases
Every year this wine gets a little bit better driven entirely by the all the work we put into the vineyard. Early versions of this wine had a real wildness to them that though intellectually interesting, were driven by imbalances in the vineyard or inconsistency in the fruit. I donāt have any interest in making a wine from a million identical grapes, thereās some complexity lost in that tight of a band, but there needs to be some level of similarity to achieve the highest quality. With more detailed farming in our 550-vine block of Summa Old Vines, we feel we have achieved this goal in 2023. It comes down to a combination of a million small tweaks but manifests itself in the serious intactness of the finished wine. I canāt really nail it down to one or two things, but fruit thinning (one of the simplest and most obvious passes) might be what separates the previous few years from everything that came before. 2023 was not a big vintage but it was high quality from the start. Knowing this, it made the three passes near harvest easier to execute to achieve what we felt at the time could be a legendary Summa Old Vines bottling. The cool, damp October Saturdays also encouraged us to spend more time on the canopy near the end which of course turned our eyes to the condition of the fruit. The resulting wine is so packed with everything that makes Summa great, it takes a while for the wine to pop open in the glass. This has always been the case, 5 years in bottle is our general rule of thumb. Most people think of melting away structure when they think of teasing out a wineās character, but here it is simply concentration. Not extraction or abundant fruit just stuffing, I donāt know how else to describe it. This is a singular wine, it always has been, we have simply refined the experience.
The Future
We havenāt seen great back-to-back vintages since 2018-19 but it looks like we will break that trend with 2023-24. Quantity is all over the place which you will see reflected in allocations with 2023 Pinot being light, Chardonnays and Cabernets heavy, 2024 Pinots heavy, Chardonnay average and Cabernets slightly under average. The thing that connects them is quality. Lineups for 2023 look like 2021 except for the return of Herb Lamb, all 6 barrels of it. 2024 right now is a mirror image of 2023 pending a quality check for each lot post malolactic completion. Given the state of flux in the wine business currently, itās a good time to see a couple great vintages lined up. You will see the 2023 Chardonnay offer from us February 11th.
Shipping/Allocations
With a slight down tick in quantity, allocation numbers changed a little for this vintage. The three most impacted wines are Bodega Thieriot, Summa Old Vines and Platt. We are going with a 1 bottle allocation for Platt for everyone on the active mailing list, but I have no idea how long it will last. Summa Old at the same quantity as last year should make it through the first day. Bodega Thieriot saw the greatest percentage reduction in quantity this year, so we rolled allocation numbers down to help it stick around for as long as possible. The other 6 wines should last for a little while longer. For shipping charges, weāve had to adjust our rates to an order-by-order price to keep from losing so much money on freight every year. As with all shipping, the more you order, the less the per bottle charge will be. If you have any questions, concerns or mag requests please contact Will Segui at will@riversmarie.com or by phone at 707-341-3127.
Thanks again for all the support
Thomas Rivers Brown and Genevieve Marie Welsh
20 Likes
Thanks as always for the great notes ahead of time. Looking at those quantities maybe this wonāt be as painful as I thought it was gonna be.
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Thank you so much for the early notes as usual, @William_Segui!
Do you have any idea if any of this yearās cuvees have a primary/dominant fruit note of cranberry?
Logged in early to make sure I was ready to go, and the offering was already live. Kept it under a case by one. Have at it
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Kept it just under 2 cases (20)
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order in, kept it to a case (but man that was tough)
In for 9. Excited to try these!
Picked up 12 bottles. A little of each.
Iām seeing all bottles up by $5 from last year, is that right?
Struggled to keep this down to 12 bottles but somehow managed.
Order in, this is a no brainer
It looks like the high and low ends did but the middle tier is the same? Shipping for me ended up about $1/bottle more too. Having said that, still one of the easiest purchases of the year
Some bottle prices were unchanged YoY, some increased. Biggest change was shipping, but is very understandable
Kept to a case and then wish listed 3 additional SC via email. Such a great bargain, can really never have too many SC on hand, especially in great vintages.