On a Pinot Noir kick these days, Sonoma County Chateau St. Jean 2009 is a homerun!

Grapes are sourced from the Russian River Valley and the Carneros district, two cooler wine growing areas ideal for Pinot Noir. At Chateau St. Jean the grapes, thin skinned and finicky, as Pinot Noir is known to be, are treated with kid gloves, handcrafted gently, cold soaked before fermentation, for optimal colour and flavour, and during fermentation the skins are pushed back down manually into the fermenting juice.

We enjoyed the Chateau St. Jean 2009 Sonoma County Pinot Noir with our mixed grilled and mushroom risotto.  It’s lush flavours of cherry and plum with the hint of leather and notes of toasty oak and long lingering finish was a great match for our Chef’s Table a la Georgia’s Backyard.

Margo Van Staaveren, is the winemaker at Chateau St. Jean, and the harvest of 2011 marked her 32nd harvest.

Chateau St. Jean

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