2018 Hirsch "San Andreas Fault" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Lots of pure fruit here with crushed strawberries, flowers, dried mushrooms and bark on the nose, following through to a full body with loads of ripe fruit and chewy tannins. It’s an intense red with lots of fruit-driven character but, it’s got freshness and energy. Give it another two or three years of bottle age. Try after 2022.

The 2018 Hirsch San Andreas Fault Pinot Noir is absolutely stunning. Hailing from one of the most heralded sites on the extreme Sonoma Coast; David Hirsch pioneered grape growing on this majestic piece of land back in 1980. The highly parcellated vineyards sit on ridge tops some 1,500+ft above the Pacific Ocean just 3 miles away. The San Andreas bottling is selected from a remarkable 45 blocks of the estate's 67 distinct parcels, and is an intricate and painstaking blend of all those micro-vinified lots. The vines range in age from 20 to 40 years, mostly heritage selections such as Mount Eden, Swan, and Calera. The vineyard is fully organic / biodynamic. Each parcel is farmed and vinified separately, leaving a complex task at the blending bench which the team (now led by David's daughter, Jasmine Hirsch) have executed flawlessly. The San Andreas Fault bottling is named for the famed geological feature that runs just a few hundred yards from the vineyard itself, and is responsible for the dynamic mix of soils found across the estate. A near perfect growing season has created a wine with incredible purity, silky fruit, layers of complexity and distinctive minerality. Juicy red fruits, range from Morello cherry to black raspberry, Christmas cake spice, rose water, alpine herbs and freshly turned earth. The finest, most gently caressing tannin lead into a stony, mineral infused finish. Truly world-class Pinot Noir that can stand with the best wines of Burgundy.