Red - Pinot Noir

Balletto Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2018 exhibits everything you would expect from a serious pinot. It combines full and captivating aromatics with a delicate texture that defines the Balletto style of Pinot Noir. The wine itself is full of contradictory forces: it’s weighty with a luscious mid-palate, but also surrounded by notable tannins and acidity that keep it focused, balanced and taut. It has plenty of dark fruit, but it’s also layered with savory earth and spices that offset it. The overall impact is complex, impressive and delicious. The 2018 Balletto Russian River Valley Pinot Noir was grown on seven different estate pinot vineyards. The sites range from quiet rolling hills to steep and cold hillside plantings. This diverse combination adds distinct elements from each site and creates a complex wine with structure and grace.

Balletto Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2019 exhibits everything you would expect from a serious pinot. It combines full and captivating aromatics with a delicate texture that defines the Balletto style of Pinot Noir. The wine itself is full of contradictory forces: it’s weighty with a luscious mid-palate, but also surrounded by notable tannins and acidity that keep it focused, balanced and taut. It has plenty of dark fruit, but it’s also layered with savory earth and spices that offset it. The overall impact is complex, impressive and delicious. The 2019 Balletto Russian River Valley Pinot Noir was grown on seven different estate pinot vineyards. The sites range from quiet rolling hills to steep and cold hillside plantings. This diverse combination adds distinct elements from each site and creates a complex wine with structure and grace. Double Gold – San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, January 2022

This is the most important wine in the Banshee lineup, and they treat it as such. The 2018 edition is an exciting, yet friendly wine, bursting at the seams with aromas of macerated wild berries and an elegant, soft earth undertone. The flavors combine both sweet and tart, reminiscent of Santa Rosa plums and wild blackberries that grow so commonly in Sonoma Wine Country. The finish is bright, slightly herbal, and savory making this an excellent food wine, as well as a charming drinking experience by itself.

Probably better known for their wildly popular Meiomi Pinot Noir, Belle Glos makes a wonderful single vineyard Pinot from the Los Alturas Vineyard in the Santa Lucia appellation. Located in one of the highest-plantable sites in the Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County, this pristine bench offers the Las Alturas Vineyard cool, coastal days with consistent sunshine and a foundation of Gloria sandy loam soil. When planting this 15-acre vineyard, they matched various Pinot Noir clones to individual slopes and soil attributes of the land. Yields are deliberately kept low in order to preserve the fruit intensity these clonal choices provide. The Belle Glos Pinot Noir 2019, Los Alturas Vineyard starts off with a deep ruby red color and intriguing aromas of sun-warmed blackberries, ripe plums, with hints of black licorice. A complexity of dark berry fruits unfold on the palate; blackberries and bing cherries along with dark chocolate flavors. Vanilla and cedar oak undertones on the mid-palate further enhance the wine. The overall impression is rich with refined tannins, firm acidity and explosive layers of ripe fruit.

The delicious 2014 Pinot Noir Carneros, Napa Valley is made from 3 clones of Pinot Noir – the Swann clone, the Calera clone and the Martini clone. The Beresini 2014 Pinot Noir shows classic Carneros Pinot notes of red cherry, earth and cranberry. This wine is medium weight with crisp acidity and bright red fruits followed by earthy/mint tones.

As a winegrowing region, there is no other Pinot Noir AVA in America that has more potential than Anderson Valley in Mendocino. The features of the valley are a Mecca for the cultivation of Pinot: here one finds daily, cooling maritime influence, dramatic geological contours with high mountains on either side of the valley, rocky soils and a mix of classic California flora and trees. The Champ de Reves spectacular vineyard is perched high above Boonville in the hills of Anderson Valley, just 18 miles from the Pacific coastline.
The Champ de Reves 2015 Pinot Noir, Sable Mountain shows complex aromas of raspberry, smoked meat, juniper berry, sage, and cigar box. The palate exhibits flavors of strawberry, huckleberry, caramel, white pepper and Assam tea. Plush entry and fruit-driven mid-palate lead into a prodigious but finely knit tannin backbone.

Combining three counties, each in its own AVA, Cherry Pie Pinot Noir showcases the best of each county’s unique flavor profile. The Napa County grapes are sourced from the acclaimed Stanly Ranch Vineyard in Carneros which is the coolest of the three climates and provides bright red fruit to the blend. The grapes from Monterey County are sourced from the Alta Loma Vineyard and Arroyo Loma Vineyard which overlook the Salinas River Valley and are planted on gravelly loam soil which creates rich, concentrated earthy flavors in the fruit. The Santa Barbara County grapes are from the Los Alamos Vineyard which lies tucked into a canyon that leads directly to the Pacific Ocean. The sandy soils, bright sunshine and cool ocean breezes combine to lengthen fruit ripening and extend hang time, resulting in intense aromatics and great acidity.

The 2019 Cherry Pie Tri-County Pinot Noir is concentrated with aromas of macerated cherries, cranberries and dark oolong tea. On the palate, this wine has brambly notes of mulberries, ripe Bing cherries with notes of baking spices and sweet toasty oak with a long, silky smooth finish.

French Soul, Oregon Soil. That’s how Domaine Drouhin characterizes itselt. Their estate winery in the Dundee Hills of Oregon, creates elegant, fine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines forged from the family’s tradition of fine winemaking in France. Named after Véronique Drouhin’s elder daughter, Laurène is their flagship wine, and is produced entirely from Pinot Noir grown on the family’s estate in the Dundee Hills.In recent years, Laurène has been named one of the “Great Wines of America” by Paul Lukacs in his book of the same name and “perennially one of Oregon’s best wines” by Portland Monthly Magazine. The 2018 Cuvee Laurene Dundee Hills Estate Pinot Noir is beautifully concentrated with a decidedly complex bouquet. Restrained notes of redcurrant compote and tobacco transition to youthful spice and bramble. Texturally very pleasing, the velvety palate seamlessly blends a kirsch core with an appealing influence of earthy undertones and a touch of vanilla. The engaging finish is luxuriously long and elegant. I do not doubt that this wine will continue to develop beautifully over the next 8-12 years.

With perfect weather during budbreak and bloom, the 2018 vintage at Hallberg Ranch yielded a robust crop and deliciously fruitful wines. The wine brimming with fresh aromas: fresh picked wildflowers, fresh plum, fresh strawberry and fresh cherry notes dance above the glass. This wine is equally exciting on the palate, with sweet tannins, and an underlying acid-driven energy framing the lush red berry, blood orange nectar and marzipan flavors. Though there is an idyllic youthful bloom to this captivating wine that makes it hard to resist now, it has the structure and stuffing to promise a long, fascinating evolution.

The Fess Parker Pinot Noir 2018, Santa Rita Hills starts with hints of nutmeg and dusty minerals. The palate deftly balances density with lifted acidity, carrying flavors of roasted cherry and root beer spice. 10% Pinot Noir. 91 Points Wine Enthusiast.