It is a great experience when you taste a wine for the first time and think, where have you been hiding, you little gem?  Flowers Winery has been around for some time now, and the owners Walt and Joan Flowers were nursery owners in Pennsylvania before they made the plunge to purchase a rugged 321 acre site on the northern Sonoma Coast in ’90. They found the property from a small, three-line classified ad in a nation publication, and then landed in Northern California to plant 29 acres on the narrow Camp Meeting Ridge Vineyard in ‘91.

Just when the Flowers thought their vineyard and winery were complete, a neighbor presented them with an opportunity to purchase an additional 327 acres. Forty-seven acres of Pinot Noir vines were planted from 1998 – 2001. In 2004, two distinct vineyards were recognized as part of Flowers Ranch, the 25-acre Frances Thompson Vineyard and the 22-acre Sea View Ridge Vineyard.

Fast forward a few decades, Flowers Winery produces Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from its two stunning estate properties, Camp Meeting Ridge Vineyard and Sea View Ridge Vineyard, as well as select vineyards in the cool regions of the Sonoma Coast AVA.

It comes to no surprise how great their wines are with the direction of winemaker, Jason Jardine. He earned his stripes in winegrowing and development with notable Oregon producers including Domaine Serene and Tony Soter and has tremendous passion for his craft, producing site-driven wines from organic and biodynamic farming principles.

So what does the ’09 Sea Coast Pinot noir taste like? Delicious to say the least. The wine is made from four clones, Dijon 777 (27%), Dijon 828 (27%), Flowers Clone (21%), and Swan (15%) with rich dense flavors of earth and mineral. It does a little multi-dimensional dance finishing long and silky. Pair it with grilled lamb and you’ll be praising the rugged Pacific Ocean ridge this Pinot noir comes from. It might be difficult to find this wine since they only made 1,150 cases of it, so if you can find it, buy it, and cellar it for a few more years. It will probably drink fabulously five years from now.

Rating: Excellent (92) | $65 | 13.8% ABV