2019 Horseshoe Vineyard Pinot Noir
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A special bottling from the highest-density, lowest-yielding parts of Horseshoe, the 2019 Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard Ungrafted Vines is a magnificent, monumental wine. Perfumed and poised, it’s a staggeringly beautiful representation of what makes this site in the Santa Cruz Mountains so undeniably singular. The 2019 unfurls like a peacock’s tail, delivering myriad layers of sweet florals, Amarena cherry, dried herbs, iodine and an echo of citrus peel that lingers epically long. The finest, most filigree tannins coat the palate, providing an ultra-refined framework for the 2019 to just sing, sing, sing, deepening with every passing minute in the glass. Just sublime.
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Robert Parker
Jeb Dunnuck
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The 2019 Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard is unusually wide open from the first pour, offering an immediately dazzling nose of perfectly ripe red fruits, cherry blossoms, cured meat, river rocks and petrichor. The palate is silky, suave and precise with less weight than usual, seemingly sacrificing none of the power, complexity and refreshing momentum generated with aeration. Echoing the palate, the finish is initially more subtle than explosive, nevertheless ending up at the same amazingly complex, expansive destination. As always, this does nothing but morph and gain dimension with time, as I have no doubt it will do over the next two decades.
The 2019 Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard Own Rooted is magical. The ungrafted vines version of Horseshoe has more obvious fruit and texture than the ‘regular’ bottling but also plenty of the mineral and savory undertones that make that wine so appealing. I’m not sure when and if I will ever taste the Ungrafted Vines again, but I would sure like to see how it ages. I am not at all surprised to hear proprietor Kevin Harvey and longtime winemaker Jeff Brinkman add that they wish they had more parcels planted with ungrafted Pinot.