A perfectly exuberant Pinot, showing classical sprite along ripe, user-friendly lines, clear, medium garnet-tinged ruby in the glass, a nose oily and concentrated, the fruit musty splendor pumped up on super-cherry and glycerin-ey smoke. There’s a buttery aspect to the bouquet feeling a lot more RRV than Mendo, but that is the dealio usually with ‘reserve’ pinots from the North Coast. Sharp plum and apricot are laid down on moldy blood-orange and graphite–steely to a point, but never going full-throttle vegetal or mineral. It’s lush to smell, though dank chararcteristics swell throughout. It’s easy and probably inexpensive, and that’s why you should pay attention.
Tasting it lays down lavish layers of charming cherry and dense blackberry into pinot-arenas usually reserved for Syrah or Grenache–possibly even cab. Leathery and lush, the burn of alcohol coming in early and I’m going to go with an easy 14-5–maybe more. Ginger beer and ginger ale evoke muddy, spicy points of light against a brick wall of powerful berry. Ridiculously infantile, with structure chiming in at every corner begging for age, the musty citrus making claim to areas untouched by maceration and plush oak. A gorgeous pinot: something showing the true potential for Mendo wines and why you should seek them out. One of my favorite AVA’s.
2021 BARRA ‘Reserve’ “Certified Organic” Pinot Noir Mendocino 14.5
Stephen McConnell 