2014 Alpine Hillside Pinot Noir
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Tasting notes
The 2014 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard Hillside is a wine of gravitas and power. There is plenty of fruit intensity as well, but the 2014 is holding so much in reserve today. Black cherry, plum, menthol, licorice, spice and smoke infuse a deep, resonant Pinot Noir built for the cellar. This is a decidedly dark, virile style, but it works beautifully. Readers should plan on being patient. The 50% whole clusters are nicely balanced.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
While there won't be a 2015 released due to dismal yields, the 2014 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard Hillside is an utterly profound wine. Tasting just like the straight Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir, only more tannic and structured, this beauty boasts awesome notes of black raspberries, spring flowers, baking spices and crushed rocks, with a tight, backwards, concentrated style on the palate. It desperately needs 3-4 years of cellaring, but is a tour de force in Pinot Noir from California!
The 2014 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard Hillside is an intriguing wine, but it is not materially better or more different than the straight Alpine Pinot, the Hillside just takes all of the attributes of this site and amplifies them to the point some of the wine's finesse becomes blurred. It will be interesting to see how both 2014 Alpine Pinots develop over the next handful of years and beyond.