2020 SWK Pinot Noir

The 2021 Pinot Noir SWK Vineyard has a haunting expression, with generous crunch and perfume. A core of raspberry and strawberry preserves opens to detailed accents of tangerine peel, wild fennel, bergamot and compelling conifer tones. The medium-bodied palate has a harmonious frame of silky tannins and shimmery acidity to support its concentrated flavors. Layer after layer of spicy red fruit unfurls as it flows through the mouth, and its complexity and vibrance call you back to the glass again and again. (EB) 97+

Pale ruby in colour. Reduced and earthy with dark cherry, earth and blue-damson skin. High acid that extends the finish. Fine-grained, lightly dusty tannin. A bit sappy and green. Lengthy. Firm and tight structure – all of these 2020s need time. (SCJ)

From the highest and steepest section of the vineyard next door, the 2020 Pinot Noir SWK Vineyard pours a deeper hue and reveals notes of wild black raspberry, dark gravelly earth, and brushy herbs. Medium to full-bodied, on the palate the rich concentration remains focused, while a more chiseled structure emerges, with its richness being held close to the vest, remaining more firm and clenched at this youthful stage. It has fine tannins and a more mountainous feel, with notes of grenadine, cherry, toasted herbs, and incense. This is another exceptional wine from Occidental that will certainly deserve time in cellar and be long-lived. Drink 2025-2045. 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).