Ceritas Pinot Noir Trout Gulch 2021

Trout Gulch is Ceritas's southernmost vineyard — a mere 3.5 miles from the Pacific, sitting at 750 feet above the small hamlet of Aptos. Planted in 1980 to Wente Chardonnay and Mt Eden Pinot Noir, it's tended by veteran winemaker and vigneron Richard Alfaro, farmed organically on uplifted oceanic sandy soils that drain deep into marine-derived subsoil — geology that gives the site a genuinely maritime character quite different from the rest of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Tucked into a cool coastal redwood drainage, summer temperatures here rarely climb past 80°F, and morning fog rolls in and lingers most of the day, extending the growing season well into autumn. That extra hang time, combined with the cold, produces fruit of real purity and naturally high acidity. John and Phoebe Raytek, whose Ceritas label has built a devoted, allocation-only following on the West Sonoma Coast, hand-harvest the fruit and typically ferment 50 to 75% whole clusters, ageing the wine around sixteen months with roughly 25% new oak and full malolactic fermentation.

The result carries a distinctly savoury, almost saline signature: dark, purple-tinged fruit meets crushed red berry, iron, mint, chalk, and white pepper, with a palate Skurnik has described as reminiscent of "a perfect blood orange" — mild phenolic bitterness wrapped in mouthwatering red fruit, with tannins firm but never overbearing. Vinous scored the 2023 a strong 92 points, calling it "sinewy" and built for drinkers who appreciate tense, savoury reds over overt fruitiness.