Charles Heintz Swan Pinot Noir 2013
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Wine & Spirits
This feels antique, its dried cherry and herbal tobacco aromas bringing to mind old-school Rioja. Perhaps its idiosyncrasy is a product of this Californian heritage selection of pinot noir. It balances healthy lushness with bright acidity, already savory and likely to move in that direction with additional bottle age as its wood integrates. Drink it in a few years with duck confit.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.