Pinot Noir "MacIntyre Estate Vineyard", DuMOL, Sonoma Coast, CA, 2022

How does one replicate the incredible quality of 2021? That’s a tough ask! It was selected, after all, as “Wine of the Year” by the world’s most prominent wine critic. The natural answer is to farm the vines at the highest possible, most precise level as the new vine growing season progresses. There’s no recipe here, the grapes vary in style each vintage, just as they should. And so, the fruit is leaner than 2021, the volume a little toned down, the structure less dominant. What we have instead is precision, focus, drive and purity of sandy soil, cool climate Pinot character. There’s a strong sense of tiny grape-berry intensity in this wine. It energizes the palate and fills the mouth with density but remains a middleweight – lithe, tangy, and uniquely coastal in expression – you can’t find this wine style anywhere outside a 12 mile stretch inland of the Pacific Ocean in western Sonoma County.