Skip to main content
Sign In New customer? Sign Up

Pinot Noir

The noblest of grapes from the coastal extremes of Sonoma County.

Rivers Marie Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir label

Sonoma Coast

Given how big our Pinot program is relative to our two other varietals, we have the ability to be very selective when determining what goes into the single vineyard wines. This has always made our Sonoma Coast bottling an incredible value given its price to quality relationship. Just like with the appellation Chardonnay, the goal here is zero to little new oak and a fresh fruit character that shows site and varietal first. Juicy and concentrated, this bottling drinks well out of the gate but time has shown it can easily age for 15+ years.

Silver Eagle Vineyard

The introduction to this site kicked off our relationship with the amazing Valdez family. We’ve moved around a bit in this vineyard over the years but the meticulous farming has always remained a constant here. Early to harvest, this is usually the most forward wine in the single vineyard lineup. Black fruited and juicy by nature, a little whole cluster addition starting in 2012 has given this wine more texture and completeness in recent years.

Occidental Ridge Vineyard

Our co-flagship site just east of the town of Occidental has been a staple in our line up since 2005. Planted in 1998 to three different Dijon clones, Occidental Ridge always features the lowest pH and highest amount of fruit tannin each year. There’s also a pennyroyal mint aromatic that makes up a significant part of the unique signature of the wine. This wine ages very slowly given structure and acidity making it one for the cellar for the first few years of its life in bottle.

Summa Vineyard

Where it all started in 2002. Summa holds a storied place in the young history of the Sonoma Coast, connected to other great Pinot sites throughout Sonoma County due to its early inclusion in the original Williams-Selyem line up. This bottling represents the second generation of Pinot here, coming from a massale selection planted in 1998. Its red/orange fruit signature is a telltale sign when tasting Summa blind. It’s as much savory as fruity especially as it ages. This “normal” bottling has crept quietly toward the qualitative level of its old vine sibling.

Summa Old Vines Vineyard

The crown jewel of Rivers-Marie across all varietals, the 550 vine block at Summa planted in 1978 represents everything we love about the wine business. The combination of history, ultimate quality and unique character make for the most distinctive Pinot Noir on the Sonoma Coast. When people talk of new world wines, the depth of fruit is commonly mentioned but this is always a wine of breadth and great intellectual interest.

Bearwallow Vineyard

Planted to Swan clone plus a mix of 30 different field selections, Bearwallow’s expression is incredibly complex and a bit hard to pin down early. It is predominately red fruited, very floral and features soil driven notes of black tea and mint. This deep end Anderson Valley site is helping to rewrite the history of Mendocino County Pinot Noir and we’ve been excited to be a part of it since 2015.

Joy Road Vineyard

Though the Pinot Noir was new to us in 2021, we’ve been working with this west Sonoma Coast site for nearly a decade. The Pinot side is three acres spread across 8 blocks. We have attempted to separately ferment as many of them as possible to get an overall impression of where the best quality lies. Given the complexities of this, it will take us a while to get a handle on the entire site but early indications show a crunchy, red fruited wine with high toned white flowers, sandalwood and spearmint.

Bodega Thieriot Vineyard

Introduced in 2021, this leased Freestone site promises to be a significant part of Rivers-Marie for decades to come. Planted 100% to Calera clone, this 9 acre vineyard is surrounded by some of the most famous neighbors on the Sonoma Coast, Occidental Winery and Platt Vineyard. This will always be an intense bottling due to its thick skins, packed with color and tannin even in the coolest of years. Equal parts fruit and savory, the brooding nature of the wine fits the area’s personality perfectly.

Platt Vineyard

We’ve been on a good run here since 2017, seeing our little Calera clone block blossom into one of the strongest wines we produce every year. Production here is always small making allocating this bottling incredibly difficult. The wines feel like a much fuller, more mature version of Bodega Thieriot given current vine age difference. Texture is what sets this wine apart from everything else in the lineup.

Sign Up