Alma Fria Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch 2024

Name: Alma Fria Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch 2024
Brand: Holtermann Family Wines [HFW]
SKU: SF-4-HFW--043026-39
Price: 79.99 USD
Availability: InStock

$79⁹⁹

Richardson Ranch is Alma Fria's home vineyard, planted in 2019 just 4.5 miles from the ocean alongside coastal redwoods near Annapolis. The Richardson family has owned this stretch of timberland since 1876, and the site brings a distinctive forest-floor character that the older Alma Fria vineyards don't quite have - wet moss, redwood bark, bay laurel. Production is tiny. Carroll Kemp uses about 15% whole cluster and native fermentation, with very little new oak, to let the place speak. A young vineyard already showing its own voice.

Shipping

Every step of the journey is managed to uphold the integrity of each bottle.

Nationwide Access: Flat-rate shipping available to most U.S. states with delivery in 3-5 business days.
Temperature-Monitored Shipping: We closely monitor weather conditions and make informed decisions to ensure shipments travel safely, with insulated packaging and refrigerated transport available when required.
Wine-Specific Protective Packaging: Specialized materials designed to maintain label integrity and prevent breakage during transit.
Provenance Assured: All wines are maintained in climate-controlled conditions at our shop until the moment of dispatch.

Returns & Exchanges

We stand behind every bottle we sell.

If the wine is less than 10 years old and it is corked, you may return it to us for a full refund or exchange within 60 days of purchase. You must show us proof of purchase. We understand that you may not live near a shop and that it is difficult to ship open bottles of wine to us, so if there's any problem feel free to Contact Us and we'll work it out.
For wines older than 10 years, the consumer bears the risk of a faulty cork, but we accept returns of older bottles if the wine is faulty as a result of improper storage. Please come by the store or Contact Us if there is a problem.
We may, at our discretion and to the extent permitted by law, accept returns of unopened wines within 30 days of purchase if they were properly stored by the purchaser, subject to a 15% re-stocking fee.

View our complete return policy →

Have Questions?

Our team is here to help.

Hours

Monday - Friday: 11am - 8pm

Saturday: 12pm - 5pm

CLOSED SUNDAYS

Email: help@flatiron-wines.com
Phone: (415) 780-1405

Add your content here

Antonio Galloni

95 points

"The 2024 Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch is a big step up from the 2023, but then again, this is a very young site. Dark, vibrant and savory, the 2024 dazzles from start to finish. Beams of tannin and brisk, salivating acids lend shape. Readers should expect a savory, vertical Pinot bursting at the seams with personality. This is such a gorgeous wine, one that may very well become an archetype for the new Annapolis-Sea Ranch AVA that is currently being reviewed by government authorities." —Antonio Galloni

More about Alma Fria

Carroll Kemp is the man behind the wines that made Red Car famous and in turn helped shine the brightest spotlights on the West Sonoma coast. The wines he made there have become legendary, not least of which is the rosé he developed from Pinot Noir that helped ignite the dry rosé revolution that has swept over our state. Red Car flourished and with that success came new pressures from investors that simply did not jive with what Carroll was interested in doing.

In the midst of Red Car’s' success, Carroll started working on a side project. An entrepreneur by the name of Jan Holterman approached him about starting a boutique cool-climate Pinot Noir label. He jumped on as winemaker and they decided on the name Alma Fria (soul of the cold) and in 2012 produced their first vintage. Within a few years they were up to a few hundred cases.

Around the time that Carroll was contemplating an exit from Red Car, Jan Holterman, who had over time relied on Carroll to run more and more of the business, decided to move back to his home in Costa Rica and handed over the reins of Alma Fria to Carroll. After accepting a buyout from Red Car, Carroll began his new journey as sole proprietor of Alma Fria. He went from 40 employees to only one, himself.

He leaned into the change and decided that Alma Fria would begin to produce the most transparent wines that anyone was making from the fog strewn ridges of Sonoma. With over 17 years of working in these vineyards he knew them better than almost anyone. With such powerful terroir wines made in the manner he envisioned would be able to clearly elaborate from where in this geologically and climatically diverse land they came from.

This means picking early, and not being overly extractive in the winemaking. The Pinots ferment to dryness with a little bit of stem inclusion and are pressed when dry. The Chardonnays are whole-cluster pressed, settled, and then go into barrels.Carroll uses only a little bit of new oak, lets the wine naturally go through malo, and never adds any yeast, water, or acid along the way.

While he would never call these natural wines they certainly check many of those boxes. But Carroll isn't doing this because it's fashionable or trendy. He does it so that his wine can really deliver a wine that speaks to its heritage. Whether coming from Annapolis in the northern part of the appellation or west of Petaluma in the southern end, the wines carry the distinct markers of their terroir.