Wine & Spirits - April 2021 - 71

Year's Best US Pinot Noirs
dark red and savory, with a scent of the sea,
of turf and dark-red fruits. What starts out
lean and cool becomes more rounded and
seamless in the glass, all the complexity filled
in with a black-cherry lushness-and wonderfully lively for a 2016. -P.J.C. (300 cases) §
523013

91 | Foxen

523012

92 | Foxen

$65

92 | Foxen

$66

2017 Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido
Vineyard Block 8 Pinot Noir ^ Like the bottling from adjacent block 43, this wine carries
the imprint of sea breezes and strawberry. It's
earthy and more grounded than its counterpart, with a scent of strawberry fruit leather
and tar, a fine wisp of smoke and fruit that's
supported by vanilla oak flavors. -P.J.C.
(1,194 cases) §
523014
2017 Santa Maria Valley Julia's Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Smelling of sea air and tobacco,
there's a windswept tension in this wine's
fruit. its flavors are lush dark red cherry for
a moment, before the tobacco leaf savor and
dusty benchland tannins square off the wine.
For barbecue. -P.J.C. (424 cases) §
523237

92 | Native9

$65

2016 Santa Maria Valley Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Winemaker Justin Willett replaced Paul Wilkins at Native9
in the end of 2015. His first vintage retains
some of the savor found in the early wines,
though it's brighter at the core, with a strawberry note beneath and behind the scent of
tobacco leaf and mushroom. Savory, lean and
slightly woodsy, this is dry and a touch astringent. Decant it to drink with game. -P.J.C.
(250 cases) §
523238

92 | Native9

$65

2017 Santa Maria Valley Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Comparing this
2017 to the older wines from Native9 recommended here, all of the flavors are in
place but they feel blunt, lacking nuance
at present. It smells of prairie grass, of dark
red-berry fruit and tobacco leaf. The flavors
are savory, the texture broad, the wine years
from its peak. For the cellar. -P.J.C. (250
cases) §
522941

91 | Cambria

$80

2016 Santa Maria Valley Julia's Vineyard
Signature Series Pinot Noir ^ Julia's is always

$66

2017 Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido
Vineyard Block 43 Pinot Noir ^ Scents of
the sea, and perhaps of nearby strawberry
fields, go up against this wine's spicy, balsamic backdrop. The savor backs up dark-red
fruit, forward at first but held in check by an
herbaceous, spicy weave of tannin. It's built
to age, or to decant and pour with a pork loin.
-P.J.C. (556 cases) §

523019

91 | Gary Farrell Winery

$70

91 | Migration

$70

2017 Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido
Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ This is Bien Nacido in
its essence, in the wine's smoky, sea-wrack
savor, in the pale dried strawberry fruit that
glides along, led by lean acidity. There's
plenty of oak, too, a leathery caramel accent
to the cool pinot savor. It could use a year in
the cellar for that oak to integrate. -P.J.C.
(595 cases) §
523089
2018 Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido
Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Dramatically vinous
with scents of leaf litter and black cherry,
there's a briary accent to this wine's flavors
that makes you think of Santa Maria fog. The
wine's texture is a marvel, sleek with a linear
tension, polished and lean, ready for thinly
sliced tri tip au jus. -P.J.C. (230 cases) §
523243

91 | Scar of the Sea

$46

2018 Santa Maria Valley Seven Leagues
Pinot Noir ^ Drawn from parcels at Bien Nacido, Presqu'ile and Solomon Hills vineyards,
this wine is lean and crisp at first pass, with
strawberry-rhubarb scents and flavors that
are taut, crunchy and tense. The tightness of
the structure is an ideal foil for something
sumptuous, like sous-vide chicken thighs.
-P.J.C.§
523015

90 | Foxen

$63

2017 Santa Maria Valley Solomon Hills
Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Scents of fragrant
chopped strawberries seems to give the
wine a textured, granular feel even before
you taste it. It's clean, concentrated and
deeply flavored, all dark cherry and dusty
wild strawberry, hovering between red and
dark red, with a tannic grip for beef. -P.J.C.
(599 cases) §

S TA . R I TA H I L L S
521442

95 | Domaine de la Côte

$75

94 | Au Bon Climat

$50

93 | Alma Rosa

$68

93 | Brewer-Clifton

$80

2018 Sta. Rita Hills Bloom's Field Pinot
Noir ^ Composed of fruit from heritage pinot
clones on a west-facing, windswept vineyard,
Bloom's Field is perhaps the most savory of
the Domaine de la Côte pinot lineup. The
fruit isn't shy, but it reads as a kind of smoky
strawberry compote, with notes of herbs, bay
and olive leaf. It's sanguine and energetic;
for smoked trout. -P.J.C. (W&S 10/20; 500
cases) §
523705
2017 Sta. Rita Hills Sanford & Benedict
Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Au Bon Climat's Sanford & Benedict bottling is the yardstick
against which all other bottlings from the
vineyard must be measured. Right from the
first inhale the provenance is there, the scent
of the sea, the cool, lovely tension between
cranberry-strawberry-red fruits and a deeper
black-cherry core. The flavors go bright and
dark as well, with the grainy forthrightness
in the texture betraying a sneaky depth and
grip in the tannins. Lovely now, this will only
grow more profound with some cellar time.
-P.J.C. (240 cases) §
523246
2018 Sta. Rita Hills Bentrock Pinot Noir ^
Delicate, mildly savory, reflecting the savor
that comes from a cool site, this pinot grows
at one of the Sta. Rita Hills' westernmost
vineyards-and feels like it. The aroma is
exceedingly fresh, a lively red-cherry scent.
The palate is pure and clean, with a sour
cherry flavors and prickly acids that refresh,
alongside a fruit-skin bite. It will reward
some cellar time. -P.J.C. (345 cases) §
522922
2018 Sta. Rita Hills Machado Pinot Noir ^
From a 15-acre parcel of rolling hills north
of Highway 246, this wine is ripe but manages to channel the appellation's coolness to
remain lively and playful. It leads with scents
of red berry, black tea and licorice, then the
flavors are a burst of red fruits, becoming
WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2021

Wine & Spirits - April 2021

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