2016 Domaine de la Côte "La Côte" Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir

The 2016 Pinot Noir “la Côte” bottling from Domaine de la Côte is flat out gorgeous on both the nose and palate. The bouquet is pure, nascently complex and beautifully precise, wafting from the glass in a mix of cherries, red plums, a touch of beetroot, cocoa powder, a lovely base of soil, sweet stems, a dollop of cedary new oak and a delicate topnote of fresh herb tones. On the palate the wine is elegant, refined and full-bodied, with lovely nascent complexity, a good, sappy core, excellent transparency, fine-grained tannins and a long, vibrant and youthful finish. This is impeccably balanced and very easy to drink in its primary state, but there is so much more complexity to come here with bottle age that it is crazy not to leave it alone in the cellar for at least a half dozen years and let the magic fully emerge.

Very herbal, spicy and savoury on the nose. Plenty of green spice on the palate, very unusual in its herbal dominance. There is fresh and vibrant red fruit but this is secondary to the savoury, spicy elements. Quintessentially whole-bunch in style. (TP)