Over the past few months, I’ve had the chance to get to know Eric Ross a little bit via Facebook and it’s been a pleasure to understand what makes him tick. His winery by the same name, is located in Glen Ellen California and sources quality vineyards to make a variety of wines – reds and whites.

Like many smaller producers, however, many of you will have a hard time sourcing his wine outside the state of California and may have to just order directly, assuming you live in a state he can ship to.

In this review, Eric sent us three wines to taste, however, the Syrah that showed up was corked so unfortunately I won’t be able to include that in my tasting notes but at least in the picture below you can see what the bottle looks like.

2008 Marsanne-Roussane – W.E.P. Rating: 90%

Technical Data:
Varietal: 48% Russian River Valley Marsanne
52% Russian River Valley Roussanne
Acidity: 0.61 g/100ml
pH: 3.52
Residual Sugar: Dry
Alcohol:14.4 %
Harvest: October 20, 2008
Bottled: August 17, 2009
Cases: 185
Price: $28

Nose: Green apple core, key-lime, ruby red grapefruit along with really nice hints of stonefruit here – peaches and pears.

Taste: Really bright fruit on the front end which cascades layers of peach flesh, kiwi, lime, and grapefruit for days. Solid mid-pallate with a good amount of “spritziness” that starts to surge. Good back-end that finishes well with really nice acids and quite simply screams out for a shellfish apetizer or even a heavy cream-sauced pasta dish.

2008 Pinot Noir – Saralee’s Vineyard – W.E.P. Rating: 110%

Varietal: 100% Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Acidity: 0.56 g/100ml
pH: 3.9
Residual Sugar: Dry
Alcohol:14.4 %
Harvest: September 30, 2008
Bottled: August 17, 2009
Cases: 316
Price: $40

Nose: Smoked paprika, bacon, wet cedar for days, plums, cinnamon, cloves and some nutmeg.

Taste: The cedar and smoked paprika hit your tonuge right off the bat and then comes a nice tidal wave of cranberries, plums, a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. It starts picking up a nice musty sock flavor towards the back of the palate and the fruit does a good job of keeping the heat at bay. A full-bodied pinot that is among the better Pinot’s I’ve had from anywhere. This is such a food-friendly wine that I could see having it with pizza or london broil.

Winery Website: http://www.ericross.com/