Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 80

34TH A N N UA L B U YING G UI D E

Wine & Spirits

with energy, this has a long life ahead. -J.G.
(W&S 10/20; 2,500 cases) §

yeasts, then aged in neutral barriques for 18
months. It starts out with the scent of a ﬁeld
of lavender. Then, between the wine's tactile
gentleness and lasting coastal forest scents,
it develops into a glorious Paciﬁc coast red.
Underneath, there's something dark and disruptive about the wine-some tasters found
the acidity overpowering or the stemminess
overt. As for me, I want it in my cellar. -J.G.
(W&S 2/20; 1,105 cases) §
521479

BEST PINOT NOIRS
519266

96 | Williams Selyem

$85

2017 Russian River Valley Rochioli Riverblock Vineyard Pinot Noir ^ We tasted a lot
of Russian River Valley pinot noir over the
course of several days and this one stood out
as classical. It's a wine with both stamina and
depths to its ﬂavors, reverberating long after
each sip, as if you'd been listening to digitized jazz for a while, then decided to play
Stan Getz on vinyl and the sound ﬁlled the
room in a completely different way. "Coming home to RRV," I wrote. "This tastes like
Rochioli in its richness and layered-soil
verve." It might surprise some rock-head terroirists that a wine grown in layers of sand
washed off the river could offer so much
distinction, and yet this is one of the most
identiﬁable pinot noirs in California. It's distinctly beautiful in the cool, balanced ripeness of the fruit Joe Rochioli, Jr., farms and
the elegant, fern-green freshness winemaker
Jeff Mangahas retains in the wine, the protocols built around Rochioli fruit since 1980-
such as foot treading, and fermentation with
a local yeast that Burt Williams isolated-
seeming to play invisibly into this wine's stature. A California collectible deserving a place
in your cellar. (W&S 4/20) -J.G. §
521459

95 | Calera

$75

2017 Mt. Harlan Reed Vineyard Pinot
Noir ^ Reed, along with Selleck, contains
Calera's oldest pinot vines, planted in 1975
at 2,200 feet of elevation on a north-facing
slope. That northern aspect may account for
this wine's gentle savor-the tobacco, the
Korean pepper ﬂake, the hint of clove and
leather. The ﬂavors are spicy and sour, the
wine's acidity rendering the texture supple
and suave, like the ﬁrst wisps of fog striking
the hill on a summer afternoon in coastal
California. Open one bottle now, but cellar
the others. -P.J.C. (W&S 10/20; 546 cases) §
521442

95 | Domaine de la Côte

$75

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) §

WINE & SPIRITS

95 | Melville

520548

95 | Drew

$60

2017 Mendocino Ridge Estate Field Selections Pinot Noir ^ Jason and Molly Drew
planted seven acres of pinot noir on their
home ranch, 3.3 miles from the Paciﬁc and
1,250 feet above it. It's a marginal climate
that works with the mix of heritage and suitcase selections providing the fruit for this
bottling-one that argues for their having
discovered, in this former apple orchard, a
great California terroir. In 2017, it's a majestic, beautifully layered wine, with energy
pouring out of the glass as if emitting what
sun was stored in the grapes. There's a density to its rooted tannins and a ﬂoral sweetness to its fruit-a contrast of grilled-mushroom savor and smashed woodland berries,
with the constant refreshing sweep of the
coastal winds. A lasting blue-sky wine. -J.G.
(W&S 10/20; 250 cases) §
519801

95 | JCB

$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. (W&S 4/20; 198
cases) -J.G. §

BEST SYRAHS
518835

95 | Copain

$36

2016 Yorkville Highlands Les Voisins
Syrah (Best Buy) ^ Wells Guthrie made this
wine after selling Copain to Jackson Family in 2016. A blend of syrah from the High
Rock, Yorkville Estate and Hawk's Butte
vineyards, all between 1,200 to 1,600 feet in
altitude, this was fermented with ambient

BUYING GUIDE 2021

$50

2018 Sta. Rita Hills Donna's Block Syrah ^
Set on a modest rise of almost pure sand,
Donna's Block tends to produce the purest
expression of syrah among Melville's four
blocks. In 2018, it grew a wine that borders on the hedonistic in its youthful exuberance, with wild aromatics of smoke and
olive, clove, mocha, dried beef, lavender and
thyme, and a core of blueberry and blackberry ﬂavors that feels deep and dark. And
yet the acid-tannin structure shores up the
wine with remarkable grace and precision, so
that it still manages to be one of the raciest
syrahs in the Central Coast. -P.J.C. (W&S
10/20; 800 cases) §
521485

95 | Terre Rouge

$100

2017 Sierra Foothills Ascent Syrah ^ A selection of Terre Rouge's best barrels, this feels
iconic, the sort of wine that could only be
made in the Sierras, and only by Bill Easton.
It is wildly rich, with dark ﬁg and inky blackberry-compote ﬂavors, and yet all of those
are tethered to a tannic structure that channels the madrone, bay laurel and red soils
of the Sierras. Its churning, dusty grip suggests that this has a long life ahead. -P.J.C.
(W&S 10/20) §

B E S T Z I N FA N D E L S
520345

98 | Radio-Coteau

$54

2016 Sonoma Coast Lemorel Zinfandel ^
The intoxicating coolness of this wine is
hard to resist. And that cool charge delivers
facets of California wine that only zinfandel
can achieve. One is the particular way this
wine develops with air, starting out as a tense,
ﬂoral red that combines the scent of spring
roses with the textural pleasure of a summer
peach. From there, it only gets better, offering a bright, lively burst of blueberry ﬂavor
on the second day, its cushioned elegance
transformed into a powerful wave, cresting with coastal intensity on day three. The
other zin identiﬁer is how there are no lines
or guardrails to the structure, an outcome of
the variety's thin skins and this wine's oldvine concentration, making it feel wild and

https://www.drewwines.com/index.cfm?method=storeproducts.showlist&productcategoryid=F4126154-0A29-491D-9397-4246433667A3

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020