2018 Guarachi Family Wines Pinot Noir Sun Chase Vineyard Petaluma Gap

The Petaluma Gap is one of the hottest Pinot Noir AVAs in Sonoma County. Sun Chase Vineyard is a primary reason why.

Back in 2013, Alex Guarachi was so impressed by what wineries like Bevan were doing with this site, he had to buy the vineyard. It proved to be a very savvy move. Before long, Kosta Browne claimed a cut for their Sonoma Coast bottling, and wineries like Carte Blanche and Pinot legend Greg La Follette were lining up to buy fruit.

The 2018 Guarachi Sun Chase Pinot Noir is bold and fruit-driven, one Wine Enthusiast called “Huge in flavor…generously intense…powerfully concentrated,” and it’s from the best vintage in Sonoma County in a decade, a year Wine Advocate called “Outstanding.” 

Situated in a gap between coastal mountains and an inland valley, Sun Chase pulls in brisk, salty ocean breezes from the Pacific, cooling grapes warmed by the hot sun and extending ripening. The hills reach up to 1,400 feet in elevation while the gravelly clay-loam soils infuse wines with a minerality that nearly every critic has remarked upon. 

Year after year, Sun Chase makes for some of Sonoma’s most opulent and decadently fruited Pinot Noirs, and 2018 was no different. 2018 was a storybook vintage for Sonoma County. Wine Spectator called it an “ideal year” and quoted David Ramey, who said he’d had “the easiest harvest ever.” Wine Advocate concurred, awarding 2018 the top score it has ever given for a Sonoma Pinot vintage.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.80%
• Enjoy right away
• Now – 2026
• % Pinot Noir
• Serving temperature – 58°
• Cork