Each year at harvest, Occidental Station is our first vineyard to be picked. Since the fruit always goes into our fermenters first, it does not enjoy the benefit of large populations of yeast already circulating in the winery. Therefore, it is often the slowest to start and may take over three weeks to complete alcoholic fermentation. The extended time in the fermenter only enhances its expressive personality, which features a vibrant purple color, bright natural acidity, and notes of violet, graphite, and cassis. The Occidental Station pinot noir is distinctly purple in its fruit character, in comparison to the red-fruited Bodega Headlands Vineyards and Running Fence/Bodega Ridge Vineyard wines.
Jeb Dunnuck 98 Pts.
A deep ruby, the 2020 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard is packed with aromas of wild herbs, wild strawberry, and cigar box. Full-bodied, with ripe tannins, it exhibits a round feel with good structure and depth in its layers of bergamot, cardamom, and orange oil. This is a gorgeous wine out of the gate, and it will continue to improve and provide excellent drinking over the coming two decades.
The family estate of Steve Kistler in the Bodega Headlands, Occidental is exclusively devoted to producing coastally influenced Pinot Noir. Kistler was initially drawn to the area after tasting a bottling of Summa Vineyard that expressed a vivid and more cool climate style. Though Occidental was officially founded in 2011, Steve has been planting vineyards and purchasing property in the area since the 1990s and has retained his original cellar team for the past 30 years. His daughter Catherine Kistler has been the assistant winemaker since 2017, and they are members of the West Sonoma Coast Vintners Association. Looking toward the estate's future, they have acquired a new ranchland property two and a half miles from the coast and will begin planting Pinot Noir vines on Goldridge soils next year at this even cooler temperature site. The following wines were tasted at the winery in May. For each of the single-vineyard sites, they hold the wines back an additional year, so this tasting focused on the 2020 vintage (with the exception of the 2021 Pinot Noir Freestone-Occidental).
Wine Advocate 97 Pts.
The 2020 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard is impressive, having dodged any negative impacts from the growing season’s wildfires or heat waves. “We really were just lucky here,” Steve Kistler says, “with that churn of wind off the ocean to flush things out, and we pick early. We started picking a day before the fires started and had everything in before smoke became part of the conversation.” Pure and expressive, it unfurls continuously in the glass. Pomegranate, rhubarb and blood orange are accented by detailed touches of seaweed, iodine, juniper and iron on the nose. The medium-bodied palate offers unparalleled concentration, its vivid flavors structured by powerful, grainy tannins, and it has a very long, layered finish.
