2012 August West, Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands.
The August West label has a lot of momentum and the 2012 vintage is a beautiful vintage to showcase the premium vineyard sites that going into making of these wines, especially the 2012 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot that is sourced from vines in prime locations, such as Rosella’s along with Sierra Mar and Garys’ Vineyard, all which produced fantastic grapes in 2012. Ed Kurtzman*, who also makes the wine for Freeman, continues to build on his talents, crafts the August Wines and is an owner partner. I tasted through most of the current releases, loving the Russian River Chardonnay, and the single vineyard 2011 Sierra Mar and Rosella’s, but the new 2012 wines are just so delicious it is hard not to focus on them, with this Santa Lucia Highlands being my top pick with it’s hedonistic and rich fruit, dark hue and silky texture, it is as good as it gets. The nose has hints of violets, bramble, spices and black fruits with hints of sweet smoky oak leading to a round full palate of black cherry, plum and blackberry fruits, briar notes, strawberry liqueur, truffles, tea spices and vanilla. This unfiltered cuvee has nice tangy acidity under the ripe flavors and while a bigger style Pinot, as you find in the Santa Lucia Highlands, this wine with certainly evolve and show a more elegant profile in the next 3 to 5 years, though I doubt most with wait to long to enjoy this pleasing wine.
($35 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive
*Updated, Please note: Correction, the partnership has changed recently, Gary Franscioni of Roar, and Garys’ Vineyard is no longer connected with August West and winemaker Ed Kurtzman is no longer the winemaker at Roar, sorry about the error.
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