
Over the past three decades, MacRostie Winery and Vineyards has established itself as one of the Sonoma Coast’s defining wineries, and a leader in a bright, balanced and age-worthy style of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Today, MacRostie is guided by Sonoma County visionary and winery founder Steve MacRostie, and talented winemaker Heidi Bridenhagen, who together are making the finest wines in the winery’s storied history.
Using grapes farmed by legendary winegrowing families including the Duttons, Sangiacomos, Martinellis and Bacigalupis, and from Steve’s own Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, MacRostie’s Sonoma Coast wines have established themselves as benchmarks, offering a rare intersection between labor-intensive small-lot winemaking, fair pricing and the complexity that can only be achieved by working with the finest vineyards.
Though founded in 1987, the seeds for MacRostie Winery and Vineyards go back to 1974—to the early days of Sonoma County winemaking—when Steve began his career at Hacienda Winery. At a time when most California winemakers were fixated on Bordeaux varieties and Napa Valley, Steve and a handful of other pioneers took a different path, embracing the fog-shrouded vineyards of Sonoma County and their untapped potential for producing some of the finest Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the world. Steve quickly gained renown as a winemaker capable of making exceptional Burgundian-variety wines. He also began to develop his own style, favoring crispness, complexity and vineyard character, as opposed to overt opulence.
In 1987, Steve established MacRostie. To make his earliest wines, he reached out to growers he knew and respected—leaders of Sonoma County winegrowing, like the Sangiacomo family. MacRostie’s wines were soon widely hailed for their unique balance of cool-climate structure and vibrant fruit. In 1992, years before the modern Pinot Noir boom, MacRostie added Pinot Noir to its portfolio, and quickly developed a devoted following for the pure and elegant style of these wines.
Several years later, inspired by a desire to cultivate his own great piece of land, Steve discovered an amazing mountainside ranch in the Petaluma Gap region on the borderlands of the Sonoma Coast. Planted to Steve’s specifications, this windswept site has become Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, and the cornerstone of the winery’s vineyard program. At the same time, in its drive to represent the entirety of the Sonoma Coast, MacRostie has continued to explore ever-farther west, to sites like Dutton Ranch and Goldrock Ridge, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. To capture the rich expressiveness of the entire appellation, MacRostie works with more than 30 Chardonnay vineyards and over 15 Pinot Noir sites—a remarkable level of diversity for a small winery.
In 2015, MacRostie unveiled its new state-of-the-art Pinot-focused winery and MacRostie Estate House on Westside Road in the Russian River Valley, which is also the home to Thale’s Vineyard, named after Steve’s wife. “I have always wanted a home for MacRostie that expresses who we are as a winery and what we believe in as clearly as our wines do,” says Steve. “Our new home in the Russian River Valley is a culmination of everything we have learned over our first quarter century, and a statement about who we plan to be over the next 25 years.”
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Pazo de Senorans Seleccion de Anada Albarino is made from 100 percent Albarino.
Straw yellow with greenish tints, vivid and brilliant. High intensity and very expressive. Profusion of aromas with traces of mineral. Great volume and ample body leaving a lasting impression from beginning to end.
Reviews:
I think the 2014 Albariño Selección de Añada could be the finest vintage of this characterful long-aging Albariño, from a year with a more moderate 13% alcohol and very high acidity (and low pH) that make the wine fresher and more vibrant. It is developing very slowly and showing quite young after it spent over 30 months with lees in 1,500- and 3,000-liter stainless steel tanks. It has a pale color and an elegant nose with notes of freshly cut grass, white flowers and wet granite. The palate is vibrant with effervescent acidity, and it has a long, dry and tasty finish with an austere sensation, far away from the tropical notes of some past vintages. This is superb and should continue developing nicely in bottle. Bravo! It wasn't bottled until April 2023, and 14,000 bottles were produced.
-Wine Advocate 96 Points
Tech:
Pearmund Cellars Ameritage Red is made from 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 17% Malbec, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Petit Verdot.
Cherry, currant, and herbaceous flavors. Balanced tannins with a lingering finish. Full-bodied and complex. Limited production.