Never had Alex’s Pinot before, and didn’t quite know what to expect. NOT that you should have expectations going into a wine, but still… His wines tend to be out on the edge, beautifully-crafted–but NOT mainstream. This is far softer than I expected: fruitier and less *out there* than anticipated. It’s a pinot impossible to find flaw in, soft and ridiculously fruited, flat-out YUMMY. Yes, I just used that word. There’s no other way to describe it. Light ruby thinning out to a quite pink edge. Hints of garnet are there, but it’s a purple wine. A stiff grain of dirt and briar meanders under the fruit, maybe even a little mold on an orange in your fruit-basket: piquant cellar-nuances subtly reside inside, a nod to the Pinot Gods who MUST be pleased, but without any of the *green-ness* or edgy extravagance I half-way expected from this producer.
It’s a gorgeous wine. Feels like SRH… Bentrock is that you? Maybe Duvarita? Fruit so pure, thin and cherry-driven, bouquet clean and fruit-full, 5-spice and decided fresh barnyard hinting at more.
In the mouth, it is calm and poised. All that berry fruit is thick and omnipresent, maintaining a steady beat start-to-finish. It sways round and oily on entry, immediately turning to acid for substance over the middle. Light and smoky, every *pinot* influence imaginable create pin-points of light on the palate. Gloriously bitter tannins–soft and restrained–grapple the blackberry, creating a meaty, green-strawberry deliciousness. A stunning Pinot, light and soft and SOOO fruity, but not a shard of sluttiness exists. Woodsy bark drives the structure, but even then: a briar so complex it’s difficult to fathom in a wine so light on its feet.
This is absolutely the cool, calm OPPOSITE of hi-octane, black-fruit concentrated Santa Barbara offerings costing 4X this and on every winebro’s allocation email. Almost impossible to put onto paper, it’s literally the world’s most perfect Pinot. The fruit woos you; the body invigorates you; the whole package floors you.
2018 METRICK Pinot Noir Rancho la Vina Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara Co. 14.0
Stephen McConnell 