2010 Ceritas Pinot Noir Escarpa Vineyard

The 2010 Pinot Noir Escarpa is just as outstanding as it was when I tasted it last year. Rich, deep and powerful, the 2010 impresses for its depth and layered personality. Dark red cherries, flowers, mint and sweet spices are all very much alive. Even with all the fruit, there is plenty of underlying structure. Here, too, the whole clusters (65%) are virtually imperceptible. I can’t wait to see how this ages. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025. Proprietor John Raytek is one of this country’s most promising young winemakers. His professional resume includes a stint as sommelier at the Little Nell in Aspen. Later he was assistant winemaker at Copain and also spent time at Rhys. Raytek is married to Phoebe Bass, whose family owns the Porter-Bass Vineyard, but adds he gets no preferential treatment when it comes to buying fruit! The 2011 Chardonnays and Pinots are both dazzling. I tasted the 2011 Chardonnays from tank just prior to bottling. Raytek ages his Chardonnays for 12 months in oak (with no lees stirring) followed by 5-8 months in oak, a style of elevage preferred by a number of top estates in California and Burgundy. The Pinots are all made with some amount of whole clusters, usually around 40-45%, but they are totally integrated and virtually impossible to detect in the wines. I also had a chance to re-taste the 2010s from bottle. Those wines were just as fabulous as they were from barrel, if not a little better. Simply put, I can’t recommend these wines highly enough. Tel. (707) 473-9482

Brilliant red. Explosive raspberry and cherry aromas are complicated by potpourri and Asian spices. Sweet,sharply focused red fruit flavors are given lift and spine by zesty minerality and pick up an exotic floral pastille quality with air. Expands impressively on the very long finish, leaving behind notes of sweet star anise and flowers.

The 2010 Pinot Noir Escarpa Vineyard sweeps across the palate with black cherries, flowers, mint and licorice. The Escarpa is quite a bit rounder and sweeter than the Annabelle, with more depth in its fruit and perhaps a bit less in the way of aromatic delineation. It is the silkiness of the tannin and the wine's overall sense of harmony that elevates this bottling. The finish is complete and harmonious. These wines were planted in 1978 with Swan clones.