2017 Thomas Fogarty Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

The 2017 Pinot Noir (Santa Cruz Mountains) is a very pretty entry-level wine. Blood orange, sweet red cherry, sage, mint and rose petal add an exotic flair to this super-appealing, mid-weight Pinot Noir from Fogarty. The 2017 has enough freshness and structure to drink well for at least a handful of years. (AG)

Thomas Fogarty have long been one of my favorite producers in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Winemaker Nathan Kandler is super talented and year after year puts out incredibly impressive wines that showcase the best of this special growing region. The 2017 bottling artfully blends fruit from opposite ends of the appellation combining fruit from Mindego Ridge in the north and La Vida Bella in the south. These two main components are complimented by some fruit from the summit sub-region and some fruit from Fogarty's own estate on Skyline. Working with these great small vineyards allows Nathan to really craft a wine the captures the full beauty of the region combining fruit from the heavily coastal influenced Corralitos area with clay soils, with fruit from 2,300ft on Franciscan shale. The different elements are woven together masterfully into a wine showing lots of spicy red fruits, cherry, dark raspberry, bramble, redwood forest, warm soil, leather and wild thyme. Medium bodied, full of life and vibrancy with a great backbone of structure to age another decade or more. Very serious Pinot Noir for the price point!