Wine & Spirits - April 2021 - 82

Year's Best US Pinot Noirs
93 | Cobb

$80

2017 Sonoma Coast Doc's Ranch Pommard & 114 Selection Pinot Noir ^ This
pinot's floral black-raspberry notes seem a
little austere at first, tightened around a salty,
oceanic tension. The wine seems to break
free with air, keeping its shape and focus but
expanding on its fragrance, in cushioned
scents of roses and dark cherries, building on
its vertical architecture with oak tannins and
fruit-skin power directed upwards. Grown on
a leeward-facing hillside on Occidental's redwood coast, farmed by Ross Cobb, this has
the structural integration to sustain it for
long aging. -J.G. (W&S 10/20; 425 cases) §

93 | Freeman

WINE & SPIRITS

$48

2018 Sonoma Coast Campbell Ranch
Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ Steve Campbell farms
this vineyard in Annapolis, at the northwestern corner of the far Sonoma coast, where
the vines grow under the direct influence of
the Pacific. You can taste the cold coastal sun
in the brisk tannins of this wine, a kind of
baked tart-plum character with a spicy chill
running through it. This wine is incipient in
flavor development, youthfully green and
red, with tension that needs a year or two to
resolve in bottle before it begins to deliver
on its promise for years after. -J.G. (W&S
10/20; 400 cases) §

523748

92 | Flowers

$80

2018 Sonoma Coast Sea View Ridge Pinot
Noir ^ This grows at an estate vineyard in
Fort Ross, on a ridge with a direct view to
the Pacific. It's an earthy, tense pinot with a
light touch, the flavors persistent and clean.
The texture develops richness as the wine
opens with air, yielding scents of pale strawberry tops and kelp. This should continue to
gain depth with several years of cellar time.
(1,800 cases) -J.G. §

APRIL 2021

523737

92 | Flowers

red blush of peach skin, the light smokiness
of sandstone. The transparent garnet color
seems to reflect the wine's brightness, suited
to tuna seared rare, or grilled bluefish this
summer. -J.G. §
522349

92 | Fog & Wind

$50

92 | La Crema

$60

92 | Landmark Vineyards

$35

92 | The Withers

$48

91 | Chanin

$79

2019 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ^ The first
impression is floral intensity, this wine's
bright red fruit layered in scents of roses
and hops. There's deep-toned richness to
the cherry-skin flavors, adding to the sense
of plushness, even as the wine sustains its
vinous character. Integrated and lasting, this
should develop well over the coming year.
(200 cases) -J.G. §
522388
2018 Sonoma Coast Sealift Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ This grows at the Jackson family's estate vineyard in Annapolis, a far-coast
site one ridge inland from the Pacific. That
cold ocean influence lends tartness to the
fruit in flavors of sour cherries and scents
of foresty herbs. Oak adds richness in nutty
scents and dark tones that meld with the forest floor notes. The fruit's fresh refinement
will play well with a fatty cut of roast pork.
(1,372 cases) -J.G. §
522383

$75

2017 Sonoma Coast Coastlands Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Katy Wilson makes this wine
from Ross Cobb's family's vineyard in Occidental, a hillside facing west to the Pacific.
The fruit tones are as brisk and cool as you
might expect from a wine grown four miles
from the sea: This starts out with zesty flavors
of ruby-red grapefruit and the pink blush of
peach skin, then its explodes with a blast of
spice, lingering on herbal notes of sage and
thyme. There's red fruit flavor in the tannins,
but it is recessed for now, the wine needing a
82

92 | Anthill Farms

$68

2018 Sonoma Coast Yu-ki Estate Pinot
Noir ^ This 14-acre vineyard, surrounded by
redwoods on the far Sonoma coast in Occidental, is part of the sheep ranch the Freemans purchased in 2007. They planted pinot
noir on a steep hillside exposed to the cold
Pacific winds in 2008 and have farmed it
under organics, receiving their first substantial crop in 2018. This wine represents
a blend of the best barrels (only 17 percent
new), and it's a beauty-a savory pinot ripened by the California sun, rooted in the cool
of the coast. The color is light, the depth of
red and black berry flavors delicious, with a
mineral earthiness that powers the tannins
toward dark complexities, even as it keeps
pulling the wine back toward red fruit. (440
cases) -J.G. §
523757

93 | LaRue

few years in bottle to reach peak expression.
(50 cases) -J.G. §
521272

$55

2019 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ^ Chantal
Forthun bases this blend on fruit from Sea
View Ridge. It includes other far-coast vineyards and some less extreme sites that provide some luscious richness to take the edge
off the bright, coastal fruit, matching raspberry seed tannins to raspberry cream, the

2018 Sonoma Coast Grand Detour Pinot
Noir (Best Buy) ^ Greg Stach makes this wine
from the Hop Kiln Estate on Westside Road
in the Russian River Valley, a property Landmark purchased in 2016. He allows the wine
to ferment spontaneously in French oak barrels, investing it with energy and grace. The
red fruit has a wild-berry character along
with peppery drive. Decant it for grilled wild
salmon. (1,434 cases) -J.G. §
521325
2018 Sonoma Coast Peters Vineyard Pinot
Noir ^ Randy Peters converted his father-inlaw's orchard to vines when the profit margins for apples began to dry up, even though
the site, in the hills west of Sebastopol, just
above the Petaluma Gap, can be pretty marginal for ripening grapes. In the best vintages, the coastal winds sustain the fruit's
freshness, captured by winemaker David Low
in this wine's cool, zesty fruit. It emphasizes
spicy plum skin and strawberry leaf, with the
kind of clarity and depth that would explode
with grilled mackerel. -J.G. (W&S 10/20;
240 cases) §
521340
2018 Sonoma Coast Reserve Durell Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ The Sonoma Coast ele-

Wine & Spirits - April 2021

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