Sizing Up Sonoma Pinot
Both quality and individual bottlings are rapidly growing
Posted: Jul 14, 2011 4:00pm ET
I've been noticing a trend among California's two priciest red grapes in recent years. Productions are getting smaller and smaller; the number of labels is getting larger and larger.
There are perhaps 800 individual bottlings of Napa Valley Cabernet, according to our best guesstimates, the important thing being that that's a lot of competing brands (including labels cannibalizing their own sales with competing cuvées).
Here’s another striking figure: Sonoma County may have 500 individual bottlings of Pinot Noir. The numbers continue to grow rather rapidly. Consider that some wineries (Siduri, Kosta Browne, Lynmar) already have close to a dozen individual bottlings.
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