2013 Alfaro Family, Pinot Noir, Mary Katherine Vineyard, Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains.
The organically certified vines are used to create the Mary Katherine wines at Alfaro Family Vineyards, both the Chard and Pinot, and these wines are showing absolutely beautifully, especially these 2013 versions, they are wonderfully expressive and well crafted. The 2013 Mary Katherine Pinot Noir is gorgeous with exotic spice and earthy components, pretty violets and roses, wild mushrooms (like porcini) and pepper/allspice leading to a transparent palate of tangy currant, black cherry, plum and mountain raspberry with hints of smoke, briar, cedar and sweet oak notes. The wine is a bright ruby in hue, comes in at 13.5% and has nice cool climate acidity that adds life, vigor and lifts the flavors while not hiding the silky texture and pleasing mouth feel, this is certainly a classy effort with refined poise, Richard Alfaro only made 4 barrels of this superb Pinot Noir, one of which was new. These is a lot to be excited about at Alfaro these days, with the addition of Trout Gulch Vineyard, the Gruner Veltliner, and there is Grenache Blanc and Albarino in the pipeline, plus these Mary Katherine organic offerings. Alfaro’s estate in Corralitos is a must visit if you tour the South Santa Cruz Mountains, not far from Aptos and the cold Pacific of the North Monterey Bay. The 2013 Mary Katherine Pinot was brilliant on my Christmas night, this is very impressive stuff and the elegance lingered on well into the quiet night with cinnamon, saline, kirsch, earl grey and vanilla. Best to let this one have another year or so in bottle, even though it is great now, best from 2016 to 2020.
($35 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive
