Alpine Vineyard, Pinot Noir, 2022
Spicy herbal and resinous, with smashing tension and beams of mineral fortitude that bring a steely, yet lacy structure to the overall wine. Bright acids, cranberry and red currant, rose and strawberry, with crushed rock salt and oyster shells below. Such great freshness – a very vibrant Pinot indeed. On the finish tea notes comingle with the salty sea aromatics. This is smart Pinot Noir by anyone’s standards.
critic reviews
Ever the introvert, at least initially, the 2022 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard opens with a classically shy, inward and coiled nose of turned earth, fresh herbs, black cherries, pomegranates and blood orange rinds. Despite this relatively reticent entrance, it endlessly unfolds and segues into its three-dimensional form, aromatically developing alongside its persistently expansive and definitively exquisite palate. It concludes with a typically weightless finish, adding evermore juicy, plush concentration with time in the glass, with an extremely fine-grained and wide tannin structure. It's a wine of pure class and allure.
The 2022 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard is a wine for readers who can be patient. In 2022, the Alpine offers a bit more up-front fruit, but it is not too long before its characteristic mineral and savory signatures make an appearance. Taut and beautifully persistent, the 2022 is also quite reticent today. But that's exactly what readers have come to expect here. The long, intensely saline finish is richly evocative of what lies ahead.