A NYTimes article by Asimov on SonomaCnty PinotNoirs just went up:
NYTimes/SonomaCntyPinotNoir
In fact, the article is not about SonomaCnty Pinots, but about SonomaCoast Pinots. All the wines reviewed, as best I can tell, are from the far/extreme SonomaCoast. It's has if the RRV Pinots do not exist and are not deserving of coverage in an article on SonomaCnty Pinots.
Rant Alert: One of the things I get so tired of is the continual trashing by wine writers of the SonomaCoast AVA. They always argue that the SonomaCoast AVA is so large and covers such a large range of terroirs/temperature ranges as to make this AVA meaningless. I would like to call bull$hit on this tired old rant.
To be sure, a Pinot from Ehren's Estate is going to taste different from a Pinot from Sangiacomo Estate. Well...doh...whatta you expect??
Consider the NapaVlly AVA. Much smaller in size. But you never hear the NapaVlly AVA being characterized as "so large as to be meaningless". A zin from Calistoga is going to be different from a Zin from Mt.Veeder is going to be different from a Zin from the town of Napa.
However, I have little doubt that these writers will continue to label the SonomaCoast AVA as meaningless. Me...I'll just roll my eyes and say "BFD". It's a perfectly good AVA as far as I'm concerned.
End of rant.
Tom