An odd Pinot: NOT of a style usually seen in California. The 99% is going to HATE this wine, as it delivers NONE of the Merlot-chubby grandiosity the big names deliver to their sugar-addled fans. Easy graphite and thin acidity in the nose, bulked up by copious fruit (that part is California), but consistently rather closed-in and demure. A wet-wood sort of shadow cast on slightly smoky, multi-vitamin savory aspects–but ALL light and requiring a search. A little bell pepper and briary greenery play on the thin aspects, creating something RATHER Burgundian.
In the mouth, chewable Vit-C hits and barely takes a step back through the entirety of the body into finish. It swells around the middle with dark black cherry and some obligatory Pinot funk before crashing with shockingly brash acidity and buried below: tannin. Feeling a bit dis-jointed; feeling a bit un-elegant; feeling a bit awkward here at this blistering nubile age, I want to taste this wine in 5 years. And in 10. And in 15. There’s fruit in there–and fruit doesn’t grow with age–it’s just everything needs to settle down around it, and that could be a crap-shoot. One I’d be willing to take. It’s just so interestingly put together, with calm structure framing everything in nearly obfuscating fashion I’m a huge fan of Radian, and can’t help but go back to Burg in my mind and how those wines taste at 2.
2021 DUSTY NABOR Pinot Noir Radian Vyd Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara Co. 14.0
Stephen McConnell 