2018 Reeve, Pinot Noir “Ya Moon” Bybee Vineyard, Sonoma Coast.
Another one of the most exciting labels to emerge in recent years is Noah Dorrance’s Reeve with a collection of fabulous wines including Sangiovese, Riesling, Rosé and a fun set of Pinot Noirs, like this lush and red fruited 2018 Ya Moon Pinot from Bybee Vineyard in the Sonoma Coast. Dorrance, who was a founding partner in the Banshee Wine Company, sold his shave and dove into his and his wife Kelly Dorrance’s own label Reeve in 2015 with the help of the highly talented pair of winemakers, Ross Cobb, known for his efforts at Hirsch, Flowers, Williams Selyem as well as his Cobb Wines and Katy Wilson, who also has an impressive resume, making wines with Cobb at Flowers, as well as her efforts at Kamen and her own LaRue, both well accomplished in the field of Pinot Noir. The vivid ruby hued Ya Moon is the youthful and crunchy fresh version of Pinot from Reeve with soft juicy flavors and zesty acidity showing bright cherry and strawberry up front and pomegranate and cranberry in the background along with snappy herbs, floral notes and spices with almost no oak present on the lighter style medium bodied palate.
The Ya Moon Bybee Vineyard Pinot was crafted to be an early drinking wine that can be enjoyed in Summer with a slight chill and with easy foods, it was crafted with whole bunches of grapes using primarily carbonic maceration, as Dorrance notes, in this process the whole clusters are sealed in a vessel with fermentation occuring largely inside each individual grape at an intercellular level, much like the wines from Beaujolais, he adds, the end result of this style fermentation process is often wines that are bright, fresh and light, which this one is, but with expressive fruit and texture. As with a modern trend in California this Ya moon is a fun and quaffable red, of as the Europeans say a Glou-Glou wine that has pleasing simplicity and is joyous to drink with friends. The Reeve Ya Moon Pinot was aged for only three or so months in a mixture of old French oak barriques and stainless steel barrels and It was bottled with a bare minimum amount of sulfur to preserve it as well as freshly fruit driven. This 2018 might be harder to find at this point, but 2019 coming from the biodynamic Vecino Vineyard was just released and it should be just as good or better still and a great way to dig into the Reeve lineup, which has added a few new offerings I’m thrilled to say and that I look forward to try!
($36 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive