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: 2018 Occidental (Kistler) "Freestone-Occidental" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

2018 Occidental (Kistler) "Freestone-Occidental" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

SKU #1465942 95 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark The 2018 Pinot Noir Freestone-Occidental comes mostly from younger vines at the Occidental property but is made with the same attention to detail as the other wines in the portfolio, using free-run juice. Its nose is an aromatic well, offering crushed blueberries, charcuterie, Earl Grey tea leaves, graphite, saline, bitter orange peel and potpourri aromas. In the mouth, it explodes with lush fruits that give way after their initial rush to bitter, citrusy, minerally accents. It has a fine grain, seamless freshness and long, layered finish. It's enjoyable now but will age well over the next five to eight-plus years. (EB) 95+ Inner quote mark (7/2020)

94 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2018 Pinot Noir Freestone Occidental is a truly remarkable wine. Maybe that is the vintage, or the added complexity the vines are acquiring with time, but the 2018 Freestone Occidental makes me incredibly curious to taste the rest of the 2018s. Bright, focused and beautifully sculpted, the 2018 is a wine of total elegance and finesse. Moreover, it captures the savory, energetic, saline style that is so typical of this part of the Sonoma Coast. (AG) Inner quote mark (4/2020)

K&L Notes

Previously labeled "Sonoma Coast," this wine now carries the name Freestone-Occidental to more accurately reflect its place of origin. The fruit in this Pinot Noir is from their Bodega Headlands, Occidental Station, and Bodega Ridge vineyards. Each vineyard block is fermented separately in two- to four-ton increments in order to capture individual site character. The wine goes into bottle after 14 months in barrel unfined and unfiltered with a minimum level of SO2.

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2018 Occidental (Kistler) "Freestone-Occidental" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Price: $129.99

Quantity:

RP: 95

VN: 94

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Product Reviews:

By: Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/7/2020 | Send Email

Here's a rare opportunity to get your hands on some truly spectacular, world-class Pinot Noir from one of the world's most heralded estates. Steve Kistler's Occidental Winery is a fairly new project with the sole focus of producing the highest quality Pinot Noir in California. The new 2018 release is simply stunning. Beautifully focused, elegant, refined Pinot Noir that is flat out delicious. This wine really shows the precision and energy of the vintage with its high-toned floral aromatics and pristine forest berry fruits interwoven with subtle woodsy spices. Reminds me of top flight Volnay, very aromatic, pure, finessed. We've been personally recommending this wine to our customers since its release but the recent publication of two huge scores from The Wine Advocate and Vinous prompted us to take as much as we could get and sharpen the pencil on the price.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Pinot Noir

- One of France's most legendary grapes and the grape that earned Burgundy its reputation. The parent of varietals like Pinot Gris/Grigio and Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir is blue to violet to indigo in color with relatively thin skins, and it is said to have been cultivated in France for more than 2,000 years. At its best, Pinot Noir creates elegant wines that are filled with primary red fruit aromas and flavors while young, revealing with an array of secondary characteristics like earth, smoke, violet, truffle and game with age. The varietal is also known, perhaps better than any, for its ability to translate terroir, or a sense of place. While the best Pinot Noir still comes from Burgundy, it is being produced with increasing success in cooler climates around the world. In France, it is part of the trifecta of grapes that can go into Champagne, and it is also grown in Alsace, Irancy, Jura, Savoie, Lorraine and Sancerre. Outside of France it is produced under the names Pinot Nero and Blauburgunder in Italy's mountainous regions, as Spätburgunder in Germany and as Blauburgunder in Austria. In the US, Pinot Noir has found suitable growing conditions in the cooler parts of California, including Carneros, the Russian River Valley, the Anderson Valley, the Sonoma Coast, Monterey County, the Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Barbara County, as well as in Oregon's Willamette Valley. In recent years, New Zealand has demonstrated its ability to interpret this hard-to-grow varietal, with successful bottlings coming from careful and attentive growers in Central Otago, Martinborough and Canterbury. Chile is also an up-and-coming region for Pinot Noir, creating fresh, fruit-forward, early-drinking and affordable Pinots from the coastal Casablanca Valley and the Limari Valley.

Country:

United States

- When people consider domestic wine, they normally think about the state of California. The fine viticultural Region within California, including the Napa Valley, Sonoma, Santa Cruz Mountains, Mendocino and Santa Barbara, are capable of growing grapes of world-class quality. But there's plenty of fabulous wine coming from other states, too. Oregon, Washington and New York are also causing eyebrows (and glassware) to be raised around the world.

Sub-Region:

California

- With the explosive growth that California's wine industry has seen the past several years, it's easy to view winemaking and grape growing in the Golden State as a recent phenomenon. And while it's true that California's viticultural history is brief compared to several European countries, this state's roots date back well over 200 years. Due to the enormous response to California wine within the United States and worldwide, there are thousands of excellent and diverse wines being produced within the state each year.

Specific Appellation:

Sonoma County

- Second in fame only to Napa, this "other" valley offers just about every climate and topography imaginable. From its cool and fog-enshrouded coastal regions on the far west, to the sprawling Alexander Valley on the boarder of Napa and the many little dips and peaks in between, Sonoma has been a vital wine-grape-growing region since the mid 1800s. Important sub-AVAs include Chalk Hill (known for chardonnay and sauvignon blanc), Dry Creek Valley (where zin is king) Knights Valley (largely cabernet land), Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast (both celebrated pinot and chardonnay zones).