2021 Martin Woods "Hyland Vineyard" McMinnville Pinot Noir

The 2021 Pinot Noir Hyland Vineyard impresses with its bouquet of autumnal spices, cocoa, cola and dried florals. It's seductively textural with soothing silken red berries and rosy inner florals swirling over a core of juicy acidity, lifted by sour citrus hints. This finishes long and spicy with a lingering pleasurably bitter tinge and slowly fading touches of tart cranberry. 10-15% whole cluster fruit. Wow. (EG)

The parcel of pinot noir in the Hyland Vineyard that Evan Martin sources his fruit from for this bottling is planted on francs de pieds rootstock and thus far has been able to avoid phylloxera. These vines were planted in 1989 and are dry-farmed by organic methods. Evan used fifteen percent whole clusters for his 2021 Hyland Vineyard bottling, raising the wine in only five percent new oak for fourteen months prior to bottling. The wine comes in at 13.4 percent alcohol in this vintage and is a lovely, light ruby color. The bouquet is pure, red fruity and complex, offering up scents of strawberries, cherries, beetroot, woodsmoke, a refined base of stony minerality, peonies and just a hint of Chambolle-like mustard seed in the upper register. On the palate the wine is tangy, full-bodied and very transparent, with a lovely core, fine-grained tannins, excellent focus and grip and a long, complex and impeccably balanced finish. I love the backend lift here! This needs some bottle age to blossom properly, but it is going to be outstanding. 2031-2075+.

A wonderfully red-fruited nose with crushed flowers, cedar wood and quite a bit of clean and fresh minerals. Ripe strawberry, light spices and more minerals touch down on the refreshing palate. A true winner!