2016 Paul Lato Pinot Noir The Contender Drum Canyon Vineyard
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The 2016 Pinot Noir The Contender Drum Canyon Vineyard comes from a site in Sta. Rita Hills and is a relatively new cuvée from Lato that was first made in 2013. From a mix of two suitcase clones (Swan and Calera) and aged 15 months in 50% new French oak, it's a larger scaled, darker fruited effort that has ample cassis and black raspberry fruits, subtle oak, notes of lavender, violets, and spice, medium to full body, and building structure that emerges with time in the glass. It's a beautifully complete wine that will benefit from a year in bottle and keep for over a decade.
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Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
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The 2016 Pinot Noir The Contender Drum Canyon Vineyard is another positively stellar wine in this range from Paul Lato. Deep, powerful and resonant, the 2016 possesses tremendous intensity. Layered flavors give the striking textural resonance and breadth that carries through to the substantial finish. The 2016 has more than enough finesse to balance some of its more virile leanings.
The darkest and most brooding in profile of these wines from Paul Lato, the 2016 Pinot Noir The Contender Drum Canyon Vineyard opens in the glass with aromas of ripe cherry, black plums, spice box and tar. On the palate, it's medium-bodied and also the brightest and most tensile, with racy acids, excellent mid-palate depth and a crunchy core of fruit, concluding with a complex, sapid finish. This should be fascinating to follow over the next decade and perhaps beyond.