PHILLIPS HILL ESTATES

REVIEWS & PRESS

Wine Library TV: Pinot Noir Showdown
February 28, 2008
Gary Vaynerchuk
Phillips Hill 2005 Toulouse Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
•
"I am completely taken aback by the overall explosiveness, the richness, the depth, the old world love that's the cool climate of Anderson Valley, and the new world love. This has everything!"
Link to Episode #418: Pinot Noir Showdown

San Francisco Chronicle: Holiday Gift Guide
November 23, 2007
Jon Bonné, Lynne Char Bennett
Phillips Hill 2005 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
•
"Nothing beats a bottle of showy but fabulously food-friendly Pinot Noir, especially if you're a frequent guest at your host's dining table. Finding a wine that has spectacular fruit and concentration, complexity, a bit of Burgundian earthiness, supple tannins and impeccable balance will seal your dinner invites for many moons to come. The 2005 Phillips Hill Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir is a good example of what California cool climate fruit can produce. The wine's beautifully artistic label - for which winemaker Toby Hill designs anew each vintage - is a bonus."

Wine Enthusiast
November 1, 2007
Score: 91
Phillips Hill 2005 Toulouse Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
Score: 88
Phillips Hill 2005 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir

San Francisco Chronicle Wine Selections: Three Stars
Mendocino County Pinot Noir
September 14, 2007
Lynne Char Bennett
Phillips Hill 2005 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
•
"Former New York artist Toby Hill never imagined he'd eventually express himself in the wines he makes. The grapes in this wine come from Oppenlander Vineyards located on Shandel Ranch in Comptche. Uplifting bright cherry, intense mint, anise and cool herb combine with nuances of earth and leather in this Pinot, which is a little atypical for the region but holds together nicely. Finesse, balance, velvety tannins and a long finish complete the package."

Pinot Report: "Big and earthy..."
June 15, 2007
91 Score
Phillips Hill 2004 Comptche Ridge Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
92 Score
Phillips Hill 2004 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir

Appellation America
August 3, 2007
Recommended: Phillips Hill 2005 Toulouse Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
•
"Toulouse Vineyard is the kind of place that makes you wish you could be a grape vine for an afternoon, basking in the sun on a scenic knoll, cooled by marine breezes and listening to the rustling of redwood trees overhead. It’s also a place with a surprisingly strong flavor signature; I’m not the only taster I know who finds clear similarities among the four vineyard-designated Pinot Noirs coming out of Toulouse at this point.

"This one is from a new label, Phillips Hill, that nevertheless has done its homework: the wine’s intense, red and black fruit flavors laced with toasted oak and dry earth is smack on trend for Anderson Valley. There’s also good palate weight and substantial body, well coordinated with the fruit, acid and tannin to provide instant pleasure on entry. I would hold this to 2010 to let all the good things harmonize even more – the winemakers seem to have had that in mind though the first impression is obviously calculated to win fast friends."

Recommended: Phillips Hill 2005 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
•
"The wine smelled like Anderson Valley to me: spicy red plums, some dark baking spice, toasted oak and dry earth. In entered both ripe and bright, meaning the fruit was full-flavored and the acids were well-integrated alongside it. Complexity develops quickly across the mid-palate, and the finish is remarkably true to the aromas – red plums, dark spice and toasted oak. A surprisingly complete wine for one so outgoing in the first moments after entry. Production was small but there will be more of the 2006, so you should be able to score some and stump your wine expert friends over dinner this fall."

2007 Pinot Noir Shootout: Finalist
San Francisco
Score: 94.5
Phillips Hill 2005 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir

San Francisco Chronicle Wine Selections: Two and a Half Stars
Mendocino County Pinot Noir
Friday, October 6, 2006
Lynne Char Bennett
Phillips Hill 2004 Comptche Ridge Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
•
"Well-ripened berry with a lovely, spicy nose and a cherry-skin note defines this young wine. It's light but has substance and just enough acidity, though there is slight heat and pepper at the end of its bright finish."

Pinot Report: "Ripe and tasty..."
April 15, 2006
91 Score
Phillips Hill 2003 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
•
"Phillips Hill is a small Pinot producer based in the Anderson Valley. Winemaker Toby Hill sources his Pinot Noir from the Oppenlander Vineyard north of the Anderson Valley in the tiny town of Comptche, just 10 miles from the ocean. Production of his 2003 Pinot is tiny, with the 2004 growing to 250 cases or so. Phillips Hill is a small artisan producer worth watching."
Link to printable pdf

Vinography: A Wine Blog
February 14, 2005
Phillips Hill 2002 Oppenlander Vineyard Mendocino Pinot Noir
"This is a delicate, feminine wine, and one of the better coastal Pinot Noirs I have had in some time."
Link to printable pdf