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The Wine of the Month...

    If you love California Pinot Noirs and find yourself fortunate enough to have the opportunity to purchase a bottle of the Rochioli East Block Pinot Noir, reach for your wallet and buy it.  Simply put, it is a fantastic bottle of wine.   I had the 2002 vintage of this wine at a California restaurant during the holiday season this past year, and the sommelier agreed with me that it won the award as the finest Pinot Noir we had ever tasted.


        The East Block Pinot Noir represents one of the single vineyard designated wines produced by the J. Rochioli Winery located at 6192 Westside Drive, Healdsburg, California.  Other single vineyard wines produced by Rochioli include West Block, Little Hill Block and River Block.  These wines consistently garner praise and high scores from wine critics.  Robert Parker considers these Pinots among the best from California, and consistently rates these with 90 plus scores. 


        Established in 1984, the Rochioli Winery regularly produces Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir varietal wines.  Rochioli has 161 acres of vineyards and typically produces about 10,000 cases of wines each year.  The vineyard specific Pinot Noirs are boutique wines with a production of less than 500 cases per vineyard per vintage.  The release price of these wines  typically runs between $80.00-100.00, if you are lucky enough to find them. 


        Unfortunately, the wines do prove difficult to find.  The winery normally allots all the vineyard specific wines to members of its wine club, and there is about a four year wait to get on the list.  Occasionally you might find a single vineyard designated wine


The tasting room overlooks the Rochioli vineyards...


in a restaurant with a great wine list.  Restaurant  prices for this wine customarily run significantly more than the release price.


        The Rochioli Winery sits overlooking its beautiful vineyards in the Russian River Valley, and is open to the public for daily tasting from 11:00 to 4:00 p.m.  Normally, they will taste the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and estate Pinot Noir.  The vineyard specific Pinot Noirs are never available for tasting.  On my most recent visit, the winery had sold out of its estate Pinot Noir, and had none available for tasting.  Give them a call at (707)433-2305 if you want more information, or go to the website at rochioliwinery.com. 

 

The Rochioli East Block Pinot Noir...