For past-vintage Accolades, click here.

2006 VINTAGE ACCOLADES

95 Points -
2006 Pinot Noir Sonatera Vineyard Sonoma Coast
This opus from the Sonoma Coast is a rich and lavishly filled wine whose impressive complement of very deep and delicious fruit comes with no debt to overdone ripeness. It is plush on the palate, and, although showing a good sense of fruity muscle, it stays supple and balanced from front to back. Its combination of polish and potency places it with those at the head of the class, and just how good it will get is a question to be answered several years hence.

93 Points - 2006 Pinot Noir Rosella's Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands
Santa Lucia Highland Pinot Noirs are very often defined by their ripeness and weight, and, while this bottling is lacking in neither, it is the wine's balance and sense of real polish that sets it apart. Velvety smooth, yet with a fine spine of acid, it is everywhere keyed on youthful cherry-like fruit and is filled in with mildly creamy oak at every stop. A classy and complete package that ranks among Siduri's best efforts in 2006, it is at once irresistible now
and seems likely to gain still further refinement with time.

92 Points - 2006 Pinot Noir Amber Ridge Vineyard, Russian River Valley
Very much keyed on the pure cherryish fruit that seems so often the message of fine Russian River Pinot Noir,
Siduri's Amber Ridge Vineyard bottling is further lifted by a veneer of rich oak and shows touches of briary spice, plums and toast that herald complexity to come. So, too, are there the first signs of velvet beginning to appear, and, as admittedly inviting and fascinating as the wine is now, we would vote for a couple of year's patience with expectations that a very good thing will get even better.

91 Points - 2006 Pinot Noir Gary's Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands
Finding a comfortable niche somewhere between its somewhat more polished partner from the nearby Rosella's Vineyard and its heavier, more muscular mate from Pisoni, this fairly complex offering mixes ripe cherries with toast, a touch of dried flowers and hints of bacon and comes up a winner in its own right. Not quite as juicy as it is deep and rich, it has a few finishing edges that are in need of some smoothing, and its persistent fruit is good insurance that it will round into very fine shape with a few years of rest in the cellar.

90 Points - 2006 Pinot Noir Pisoni Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands
Of the three outstanding Siduri efforts that hail from the Santa Lucia Highlands, this one is far and away the biggest, ripest and most fully extracted. It is, however, still solidly fruity in spite of itself, and, while presently blunted by a little more tannin than is typical in Pinot, it is nevertheless an involving, moderately age worthy offering that is bound to satisfy those who champion red wines of real savor and weight.

90 Points - 2006 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - 923 Cases
Intense and complex, with vivid blueberry and wild berry flavors that touch on ripe plum jam. Holds its focus and fruit on the finish.

One bonus to making multiple single-vineyard wines from Sonoma is that it gives Adam and Dianna Lee the flexibility to redirect some of the barrels that don't fit into those wines into a regional blend. The 2006 vintage turned out to be trickier than expected, but the Lees' Sonoma Coast Pinot is complex and compelling, rivaling their single-vineyard wines in quality.

Accolades for prior vintages - Click here.