What follows is a collection of amazing Pinot Noir from all over the globe. Since this country usually gets short shrift, alphabetically, let’s go backwards and start with:
USA
Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir 2018, Santa Barbara, California. A true American Classic, and a wine that has vexingly eluded me until now. Only reason this doesn’t cost twice as much as other estate-grown Santa Barbara wines is that Jim Clendenen – the law-student-shaman-Pinot-dancer who owns and runs ABC – bought all his land back when there was nothing in Santa Barbara but Ronald Reagan’s horses (Santa Barbara has since risen to produce some of California’s best Pinots and a famous Anti-Merlot movie). This is generous, evocative, balanced Pinot; as ripe as it is, it retains elegant acidity and never crosses over into Belle Glos richness. Blackberries and cloves stirred with strawberries and green tea. Fantastic Pinot, fantastic value, exclusive to Everything Wine. 2 cases available, $46.98
DuMol Highland Divide Pinot Noir 2017, Russian River Valley, California. A worst-kept-secret house on a deliberate, deserved ascent. Concentrating on cool climate sites in Sonoma, DuMol’s Andy Smith has been quietly crafting sublime Pinots and Chards from some of the foggier nooks in the county, like the O’Connell and Coffee Lane vineyards that comprise most of this Highland Divide’s assemblage. Lavender and pine notes swirl into chocolate blackberries, a medium to full footprint, fresh finish. 12 bottles available, $134.99 +tax
Carte Blanche Sun Chase Pinot Noir 2016, Sonoma Coast, California. Nathan Allen, a descendant of Clarence Dillon (of Bordeaux First Growth Chateau Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion), worked with French/American winemaker Luc Morlet to pick prime sites in Sonoma like this high-elevation Sun Chase vineyard in the famed Petaluma Gap area in the south of the Sonoma Coast. Then he hired Helen Keplinger (2012’s Winemaker of the Year) to work her alchemy in the cellar - If this were a movie pitch it’d get greenlit in a second based on personnel alone. This 2016 is swimming in brilliant red fruit with sagebrush and violet, drinking lushly with just enough lift and tension on the mineral finish. Exclusive to Everything Wine. 95 points Jeb Dunnuck, 12 bottles available, $99.99 +tax
Cobb Rice-Spivak Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017, Sonoma Coast, California. Classy, restrained hedonism. A study in aromatics from father-and-son team David and Ross Cobb and their family friend’s vineyard inland just south of Sebastopol. Cured meats and dried flowers surround the dried cherries and rhubarb, the body is fleshy and laced with orange peel, anise and black tea. This is a lot. The finish is long and thick, with great jolt and zing. New to B.C., imported in tiny quantities. 96 points Vinous, 95+ points Robert Parker, 6 bottles available, $134.98 +tax
Arnot-Roberts Legan Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018, Santa Cruz Mountains, California. Childhood friends Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts grew up in the Cali wine business, Nathan as a barrel maker and Duncan making wine. The pair teamed up to make wine from micro-terroirs up and down the coast and the Legan Vineyard, in the mountains east of Monterey Bay, cools its screaming mid-day heat with breezes off the bay that allow a long, gentle autumn, letting the phenolics ripen without roasting the sugars. Strawberry, raspberry and red cherries lead, with citrus and herbal notes following suit. Nice balance, great finish, could be better in 2 years. 94 points Vinous, 6 bottles available, $119.98 +tax
Orin Swift “L’Usine” Pinot Noir, Sta Rita Hills, California. Inspired by Andy Warhol and his iconic art studio The Factory, l’Usine is accordingly packaged quite artfully (theses could be written about Orin Swift’s labels) and the juice inside warrants it. Winemaker Dave Phinney isn’t trying to trick you into thinking this is anything but Californian Pinot, it’s lush and chocolatey with blackberries, dark cherries, sandalwood and a touch of dirt, with enough lift to dance lightly over a lingering finish. Sourced partially from the Sea Smoke vineyard, medium bodied with full intensity, exclusive to Everything Wine. 93 points Robert Parker, 93 points Wine Spectator, 4 6-packs available, $99.99 +tax
Nicolas Jay Momtazi Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017, McMinnville, Oregon. Bright/dark exoticism from the windy Van Duzer Corridor. Nicolas Jay is the American project of Meo-Camuzet – one of Burgundy’s forever houses – farming in one of the densest crus in the Willamette. The Momtazi vineyard was planted by Moe and Flora Momtazi, who had a long family history making wine in Iran before fleeing after the Revolution to the US. Classic McMinnville AVA severity forms the core of this crammed Pinot, with deep stone fruit alongside the cherries and roses. 95+ points James Suckling, 94 points Vinous, 6 bottles available, $173.98 +tax
St. Innocent Zenith Vineyard 2016, Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon. A gorgeous, fruity mess. I met Mark Vlossak a few years ago, a man short in neither talent nor opinions, and in one hour I was up to speed on the geological history of the Willamette valley. Please take my word for it, the dude knows dirt. This 2016 is the second-last vintage he made from the ripe Zenith vineyard, which is a shame cuz this is a tangled feast: roses tossed with raspberries and chamomile over a spicy cherry broth. Delicious and good to go, exclusive to Everything Wine. 93 points Vinous, 2 6-packs available, $62.98 +tax
PORTUGAL
Casa de Saima Pinot Noir 2017, Bairrada. I can already hear the questions forming in your minds, so let me try and get ahead of this: Q: Pinot Noir? A: Yep. Q: From Portugal? A: Correct. Q: Is that normal? A: No, it’s rarely grown there, especially in Bairrada, which specializes in the dense grape Baga. Q: Why did they plant it, then? A: The French-born wife of the doctor who founded this estate decades ago only agreed to the investment if he planted a small plot of Pinot for her, so she could occasionally recharge her Frenchness, I suppose. Q: How is it? A: Killer, actually. Really good. The extraction is low and the vinification is done entirely in tank, so the expression is pure terroir, and the body and fruit intensity are pretty Burgundian, showing saline cherries, forest mushroom and licorice. Very yum, no weirdness. Q: Well hey, I’m in! How much do you have? A: I have 18 bottles available and the price is $42.98 +tax
NEW ZEALAND
Dog Point Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough. As tweedy and proper as the gents who borne it. A lovely, mature back vintage from some of my favourite Kiwi producers, Dog Point’s Ivan Sutherland and James Healy (the original growers of Cloudy Bay), showing tinctured, savoury notes amongst the dried cherries, burnt orange, leather and tea notes. Quite round on palate, ambulating silkily towards a soft landing. I’ve had this Pinot young, and it’s remarkable how it seems to gain ripeness with advanced age. 6 bottles available, $107.98 +tax
Rippon Mature Vines Pinot Noir 2016, Central Otago. This is a stark, dramatic Tolkien-esque Pinot from a steep vineyard bent over Lake Wanaka, deep in the mountains of the South Island. Schist and gravel are hard to grow in, and these 45-year-old vines (some of the first in that region) produce dense, rich berries, full of structure and longevity. Accordingly, this mighty Wine-of-Rohan is currently austere, showing subtle blackberries and licorice over a taught foundation with a complex, ferrous finish. Best to treat this like a Nuits-St-Georges and bury it for 3-4 years, this will shine in your cellar like a golden ring. 97 points James Suckling, 94 points Robert Parker, 12 bottles available, $76.98 +tax
GERMANY
Jean Stodden Herrenberg Frühburgunder GG 2017, Ahr Valley. Ok. This is one of those instances where I hope that I’ve built up enough credibility to ask you to just trust me: this is the most incredible, expressive Pinot that I’ve tried all year. Except it’s not a Pinot. It’s a Frühburgunder, a mutation of Pinot Noir discovered in the 1500s that lives on only in the Ahr Valley in Germany and ripens earlier than Pinot (Pinot Noir, by contrast, is called Spatburgunder – Spat meaning Late). But it’s workably a Pinot, they both go to the same parties. It’s intensely fragrant (strawberry, pepper, matcha), wonderfully floral (roses, jasmine) and beautifully balanced with great acidity on the long, concentrated finish, nothing weird or rustic going on, just prettiness. Like a Willamette pinot that someone threw a lamp into. Outstanding. 12 bottles available, $105.98 +tax
Weingut Wittmann Spätburgunder Rotwein Trocken 2017, Rhinhessen. Forget the multi-syllabic German labels, this should be called I can’t Believe It’s Not Santa Barbara!! The Wittmans have farmed near the village of Westhofen in the toasty-hot Rhinhessen since the 1600s, and although their principal grape is Riesling, they make a few barrels of this ripe, unctuous Pinot, full of black cherries, plums, blueberries and vanilla bean, with a medium-full weight. Plumply gorgeous, clean and classy. If I didn’t tell you differently, however, you’d think this was great value for a premium Cali Pinot, which is easier than negotiating those bumpy German names so I’m gonna roll with that. 12 bottles available, $40.98 +tax
FRANCE
Lou Dumont Bourgogne Rouge 2017, Burgundy. I have found your Turkey Wine. All the characteristics of premium red Burgundy with the shape and accessibility of Oregon Pinot. Drinks handily by itself – it’s a few clicks lower on the acid-o-meter – but will slow dance with pretty much any meal you put in front of it. I’ve featured Lou Dumont’s Chardonnays but I’ve never showcased their reds, an unfortunate oversight because they make luxurious Pinots, a tad more lush than other Burgundies, although far better known in Asia than here. Mushrooms and roses lift up the prominent red fruit on the nose – the barrel isn’t hiding and that’s dandy – towards a full-ish body and a soft finish with a wee side of vanilla. Enough quality to deserve your table, but enough value that you can watch your 19-yr-old nephew chug this and feel nothing. 5 6-packs available, $43.98 +tax
BRITISH COLUMBIA
One Mill Road Home Block Pinot Noir 2018, Naramata. Crescent Beach ex-pats David and Cynthia Enns, the couple who founded, then ran, then sold Laughing Stock, return to the spotlight with a single wine from a single place: One Mill Road (that’s the address). This inaugural Pinot shows off its sunny perch looking over Naramata and Okanagan Lake, exuding baked red fruits, cola and cardamom over a rather unctuous body with a toasty finish. One of the more plus-sized Pinots to emerge from BC, no doubt due to the extra hours of sunshine their higher altitude affords them, and a confident return to the ever-changing local stage. 2 cases available, $49.99 +tax
AUSTRALIA
Montalto Main Ridge Pinot Noir 2016, Mornington Peninsula. A beautifully exuberant Pinot from the Main Ridge vineyard, south of Melbourne. The battle between the fruit and savoury notes lifts the whole of the aromatics, but the fruit edges out a victory before the medium body deploys and the herbs come back on the finish, in an almost Campari-esque way. The oak is felt but not tasted or nosed, the fruit profile is fresh and gloriously red. Good to go. 97 points James Halliday, 10 bottles available, $78.98 +tax
NON-STOP CLASSIC HITS
What follows is a brief listing of some wines that fit this theme and have previously been written about, but featured again for the benefit of those who’ve recently joined my Collectors List and may have missed ‘em the first time. If anyone requires more info I’m happy to send over the original blurb to you.
Paul Hobbs Hyde Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015, Napa Valley. 94 points James Suckling, 92 points Robert Parker, 1 case available, $146.98 +tax
Beaux Freres Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015, Ribbon Ridge, Willamette. 96 points James Suckling, 95 points Wine Spectator, 5 bottles available, $160.98 +tax
Hartford Court Land’s Edge Pinot Noir 2016, Sonoma Coast. 94 points Jeb Dunnuck, 93 points Robert Parker, 12 bottles available, $78.98 +tax