Signal Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir

Moderate garnet color in the glass. Alluring aromas of purple plum and grape, spice and burnt tobacco. Hearty on the palate with engaging flavors of blackberry, black cherry and Hoison sauce, finishing joyously long and dry. Typical spice that I find from Hungarian barrels. Still commendable when tasted the following day from a previously opened and re-corked bottle. Score: 93

Wines from the likes of producers such as Rhys, Kalin Cellars, Porter Creek, Joseph Swan, Copain and Littorai are really stunning testaments to just what is possible when pinot noir is planted in the right places in California and produced in such a way as to maximize its varietal purity and transparency of soil signature. Newcomers (at least to me) such as Poe Vineyards, Kendric Vineyards, Knez Winery and Bravium show that this varietal is really coming of age in several different regions of California.

Derek Rohlffs makes really superb pinot noir and his 2018 Signal Ridge Vineyard bottling is excellent. The wine comes in at 13.4 percent octane, taking advantage of the cooler microclimate here at 2600 feet above sea level. The wine offers up a complex, red fruity nose of cherries, blood orange, a touch of beetroot, cloves, woodsmoke, a nice touch of stems, a good base of soil and a discreet foundation of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and tangy, with a good core of fruit, fine soil signature, ripe, well-integrated tannins and a long, complex and very promising finish. This deserves some time in the cellar to really blossom (as well as fully absorb its serving of new wood) and should prove to be long-lived and deliver great drinking for several decades, once it has blossomed. 2028-2055+. Score: 92 Points.