Well, this is rather gorgeous. Don’t mean to sound surprised, as we’re all getting used to the beautiful Pinot expressions from this label. Typical rich, heady, tarry earth and spice in the nose, a granular texture to the oak and ripe fruit expressing Russian River Valley at its finest. Blood orange and briar make an announcement, wet horse-stall and petrichor sealing the deal.

I really like the green herbaceousness of this particular bottling. If your Pinot doesn’t show these piquant qualities: you’re drinking the WRONG pinots–plain and simple. Structure invades the early-middle in a fashion somewhat un-typical-RRV-like, and it is a welcome cat’s-tongue of angst. The fruit a thin, elegant cherry–rife with acidic rasp and chalky beauty, never going slutty even considering the concentrational typicity of the region reflected. Pear and acai pound out meaningful beats of pithy berry, but in ways perfectly elevated to this grape’s sly presentation of density. A bit of heat slurs the tannin through the finish: the watery, cool elevation of fruit carrying on proudly.

This is definitely one for the cellar: drinking it at 2 is a meaningful experience, but obviously infanticide. Buy as much as you can afford and hold on to it as long as you can. Donald Patz knows how wine ages–his cellar of timeless Napa and Sonoma classics prove it–and THIS one will go 20 years easy.

2019 MARITANA VINEYARDS Pinot Noir Martaella Vyd Russian River Valley 14.0

https://maritanavineyards.com/