Wine & Spirits - April 2020 - 81

YEAR'S BEST US PINOT NOIRS
YORKVILLE HIGHLANDS

berry freshness. Simple and comforting, this
is built for country pâté. (250 cases) -J.G.

S ONOMA C OUNT Y
SONOMA COAST
519801

95 | JCB

519268

96 | Williams Selyem

$65

2017 Yorkville Highlands Weir Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ There isn't a lot of pinot noir in
the hills south of the Anderson Valley. And
pinot wasn't the most likely variety for Bill
and Suki Weir to plant when they bought a
parcel of rocky grazing land there, near the
headwaters of the Navarro River, in 1987. A
lawyer by trade, Bill studied viticulture, then,
after a trip to Burgundy, he sourced plant
material from Mount Eden, which traces its
cuttings back to Domaine de la RomanéeConti; he used it, along with the Wädenswil
clone, to plant his first 7.5 acres, in 1992. By
1998, he had convinced Burt Williams to buy
some of his fruit and Williams Selyem has
been making Weir Vineyard Pinot Noir ever
since. It is among the most distinctive and,
often, the most beautiful of Williams Selyem's range. This 2017 has the grandeur of
an American grand cru: It speaks of mountain forests and coastal desert cold. There's
brightness to its scent of roses, and sumptuous richness to its texture, knitting the wine's
dark fruit and energy together in a flavor that
lasts for minutes. -J.G.

MENDOCINO COUNTY

94 | Hirsch

90 | Phillips Hill

$50

2017 Mendocino Oppenlander Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ This wine grows in Comptche,
north of the Anderson Valley, at a vineyard
planted on its own roots in the late 1990s.
The vines grow at an elevation of 600 feet,
ten miles from the coast. The wine is tight,
firm and juicy, all bunched up in sweet rasp-

$85

2017 Sonoma Coast Raschen Ridge Pinot
Noir ^ Anthony Filiberti selected this blend
from the highest-elevation blocks at David
Hirsch's vineyard on Sonoma's far coast.
The extremity of the site makes for a wine
that is completely suppressed when you pull
the cork. At our tasting, it started out green
in spice and fruit, with matchstick reduction and wild-mushroom scents. Two days
later, the wine was delicious, the reduction
resolved, the flavors layered like the fresh
bloom of a hen-of-the-woods mushroom,
the earth on display. On the fifth day, it had
mellowed into green spice and wild-mushroom complexity. That long arc of development points to this wine's aging potential;
the vineyard has a track record of producing
long-lived pinot noir. (525 cases) -J.G.
519800

94 | JCB

519618

$70

2017 Sonoma Coast No. 11 Pinot Noir ^
Brian Maloney blends this wine from four
vineyards in the hills north of the Petaluma
Gap-Doña Margarita, Highlands, Ferguson
and Fiddler-all windy, fog-influenced sites
on sandy soils. Grounded in the cool earth of
the coast, this dives into cool fruit, with the
flavor of fresh-picked berries. That fruit feels
clean and pure, lasting in scents of roses and
cardamom, bright and zesty, then deepening
into the dark tones of tannins. Its integration
gives it richness that feels tied to the intensity
of the Pacific, the wine's cool scent lasting
into the far distance. (198 cases) -J.G.
519537

$60

2017 Sonoma Coast No. 7 Pinot Noir ^
This blend focuses on heritage selections of
pinot noir (Pommard, Swan and Calera) at
vineyards in the Russian River Valley, Petaluma Gap and Carneros, some planted on
sand, some on clay. They come together in
a dynamic pinot noir, vibrating with complexity and lasting flavors. The oceanic
freshness of fruit ranges from cranberry and
strawberry to deeper plum flavors, their fragrance layered over a structure enriched by
oak. The depth and length of flavor shares an
energy that's present for days after the bottle is first opened, suggesting a long and gracious development ahead. (200 cases) -J.G.

517941

93 | Anthill Farms

$48

93 | Radio-Coteau

$70

93 | Williams Selyem

$55

92 | Freeman

$76

2017 Sonoma Coast Peters Vineyard Pinot
Noir ^ The Anthill Farms team consistently
makes some of their top wines from Peters
Vineyard, a site in the hills west of Sebastopol. On the northern edge of the Petaluma
Gap, the vines are typically blanketed in
fog, though in 2017, the heat of late summer led the Anthill Team to pick early. They
produced a wine with violet perfume and
detailed, soil-inflected tannins, still coastal
in its lasting sense of freshness. Young and
tight, this needs bottle age to show its best.
(W&S 10/19; 400 cases) -J.G.
519822
2017 Sonoma Coast Belay Pinot Noir ^ Eric
Sussman had been working with fruit from
old zinfandel vines at the Morelli Ranch in
Occidental since 2002. When he purchased
the property ten years later, he planted 12
acres of pinot noir and began converting the
ranch to biodynamics. The young far-coast
vines at his Belay parcel produced a tense
and formidable 2017, the foresty green spice
of its tannins shutting down the red plum
and cranberry flavors even as the wine drives
through a long arc of a finish. This needs a
year or two for the tannins to lessen their
grip, at which point the wine will be delicious with roast quail or other dark-meat
game birds. (190 cases) -J.G.
516992
2017 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ^ Jeff Mangahas blended this wine from three coastal
sites-Terra de Promissio in the Petaluma
Gap, Coastlands in Occidental and Williams Selyem's Drake Estate in Guerneville.
It's spicy, bright and pretty, an open and welcoming wine right down to the fine sweetness of its tannins. The flavors of salted plum
and shiso leaf suggest serving this with panseared duck marinated in mirin and soy, or
broiled unagi over rice. (W&S 8/19) -J.G.
519489
2017 Sonoma Coast Akiko's Cuvée Pinot
Noir ^ This barrel selection includes a majority of estate-grown fruit, with contributions
WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2020

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Wine & Spirits - April 2020

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