2019 Mysterious Pinot Noir
97 Points - Vinous
Deep, bright-rimmed garnet. A highly complex bouquet evokes red and blue fruit preserves, along with suave Asian spice, floral oil and smoky mineral flourishes. Shows impressive definition and lift on the palate, offering spice-tinged boysenberry, cherry cola, Chambord, candied lavender and spicecake flavors that put on weight as the wine opens up. Finishes extremely long and lively, with fine-grained tannins providing closing grip to lingering raspberry and bitter chocolate notes. All Pommard clone; made with a combination of whole-cluster and de-stemmed fruit and raised in 20% new French oak.
Winemaking and Notes: 12 of the 15 barrels come from 100% whole cluster fermentations and 3 come from completely destemmed fermenters. Most of the wine still comes from the large block in the ideal location on the bowl-shaped hillside but 3 barrels came from the block above that seemed to add a dimension of elegance and texture without taking away from the lavish and deep fruit and structure the wine is all about. This combination allows the structure and earthen minerality to be infused with the incredibly lush and dense fruit this vineyard produces creating a wine of great depth, character, complexity and flavor. 20% new barrel was used with a combination of once to four times used barrels to round out the barrel program. This wine wants to be perfect. It is youthful and jumpy right now. As of writing this, there is so much material rolling around with fruit and tannin. Its characteristics are sort of all over the place. Not unusual for great wines to begin at stages like this. This has power, concentration, dry extract, subtle spice undertones and enormous length to it. This is not necessarily a powerhouse, but it has so much to it that it’s impossible to doubt that there is profundity in this wine’s future. Taste it now for all the incredible stuff going on but get it because it will be great years down the road. The last three vintages of this bottling have scored 95, 96 and 95 from Josh Raynolds of Vinous.com.
