This is some really interesting pinot from a label which appears to be defunct. Gorgeous amber in the glass–thin and transparent–with a nose swollen with ripe fruit and copious controlled tertiary. Funky to a tee, lavish bruised greenery and dirty baby diaper, a considerable amount of which blows off–unfortunately: because this is the kind of shit I love in a pinot. Three appellations–mirroring at least one bottom-shelf offering of ridiculous popularity and vague typicity, but here it’s done RIGHT, pulling ALL the great things we love about Pinot out of the glass. Smoky and sullen, reflecting your wish-list of fresh-cut garden hose and tennis-ball fuzz down decadent berry paths.
Tasting it produces a wine streamlined along perfectionary paths with absolutely NO signs of fatigue. It’s bright and sharp, the acid cutting deep furrows down to tannic depths, the cherubic raspberry and strawberry layered on watermelon and stunning floral. But 8 years has worried the fruit into elegant territory, match-head the requisite background, mineral steely and indifferent to supermarket norms. Sublime concentration produces a decades-long finish, packed with charismatic stuffing of which *fruit* is the main ingredient. A gorgeous pinot but you can’t buy it.
2014 CULTIVATE WINE CO Pinot Noir Santa Barbara/Monterey/Sonoma 49/47/4 California 14.1
Stephen McConnell 