Thin bright beautiful deep ruby translucency crams a wet-penny, birch-bark sweet baby pink swaddled tomato-beef stew into your nose, but not before foreshadowing the minerality to come. I have to admit, this astringency in his wines was something I did not appreciate in my early days of Pinot-exploration.
Bynum was one of the earliest premium-pinot houses in RRV I ever went into. Back in the late-80’s, with Armida and Belvedere and Swan. Right there at the bend where the road floods and you can’t get back to River Road unless you go all the way back up to one of the steel bridges–which by now already has water lapping under the roadway. But this is about wine, not a lifestyle-blog. I actually had this wine queued up several days ago for tonight and my dinner planned. The news this morning made me re-consider, momentarily, but decided to stick with it.
In the mouth, a matching calm explosion of sweet fruit is momentary before the wine–thin and user-friendly as it is–decides a signature green streak of Burgundian delight needs introduction, but just a little–never enough to derail the honeysuckle and lilac of RRV–but enough to show who’s boss and slowly meld into spicy tannin, while the pretty fruit hardens slowly alongside.
2014 DAVIS BYNUM Pinot Noir Jane’s Vineyard Russian River Valley Sonoma Co. 14.5
Stephen McConnell 