2005 Etude "Heirloom" Carneros Pinot Noir

96 points Wine Enthusiast: "Etude's Heirloom bottling is vintage-driven, and the 004 is a great wine. It's a powerhouse that in its youth is full-bodied and almost heavy. It shows massive flavors of red currants, cherry pie filling, cola, figs and spices that taste like they were baked into a dessert pastry, except that the finish is thoroughly dry. What's hard to communicate is the wine's dazzling structure. Not meant to be opened now, it's a Pinot Noir to store through 2010, as it husbands its strength and gains bottle complexity." (12/08) 91(+?) points from Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar: "Good full red. Bright aromas of raspberry, flowers and minerals. Concentrated and distinctly wild, with excellent depth of fruit but less obvious sweetness and pliancy than the Temblor or Deep Camp. This juicy, firmly structured pinot needs at least a couple years of bottle aging to express itself. Perhaps best today on the whiplash of a finish. Incidentally, these 2005 pinots were aged in 50% to 60% new barrels." (May/June '08) 90 points Robert Parker: "The 2005 Pinot Noir Heirloom reveals the darkest color, the most tannin and structure, but also the deepest fruit. Offering long, rich red and blackberry, roasted herb, forest floor, and gamey notes, good acidity, and plenty of tannin, it is a seriously-endowed Pinot to drink between 2009-2014." (12/07)