2019 Alma de Cattleya, Pinot Noir, Sonoma County.
Bibiana Gonzàlez Rave-Pisoni’s second label Alma de Cattleya is a rewarding, regional and value packed collection of wines, especially good is this beautiful Sonoma County Pinot Noir, this 2019 is silky, deep in flavor and well crafted with black cherry, red berry and plum fruits leading the way on the smooth and richly fruited medium bodied palate. This is excellent stuff with a subtle perfume and precise use of smoky/toast French oak, allowing for beautiful purity and capturing the subtle nuances perfectly, this is easy to love and it goes great with food. This 2019 has a touch of spicy accents with cinnamon, a touch of shaved vanilla and some earth charm in the background, this vintage is real crowd pleaser from one of California’s top winemakers. This delicious Pinot was the perfect choice with a comforting meal at Big Sur’s famous Deetjens restaurant, where it held up brilliantly with a range of dishes, including my hand made pasta and grilled shrimp and the herb crusted chicken. Bibiana Gonzàlez Rave-Pisoni has a great touch with Pinot Noir and this wine is very compelling stuff, it delivers no end of pleasure in the glass, it is hard to find this kind of quality for the price that she sells this wine for, making it an excellent choice on bistro wine lists, and is a sublime wine for by the glass pours, as I had it as.
The Alma de Cattleya (soul of the orchid) line is past of Bibiana’s signature Cattleya mostly single vineyard collection, where she features small handcrafted wines from top vineyard sites, one of which is her husband Jeff Pisoni’s family owned Soberanes Vineyard, where she gets her Syrah from and from which she produces one the state’s best wines. This Alma de Cattleya lineup includes, Sauvignon Blanc, Bordeaux varietals, Chardonnay and this Pinot Noir, all of which offer a big bang for the buck. For this wine, Bibiana sources the grapes from selected vineyards in the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley AVAs and she ferments them in open top stainless after a cold soak to extract the beautiful dark ruby color, this 2019 saw gentle hand punch downs and a soft pressing before the Pinot was barreled down for 16 months. Favoring vines close to the ocean with its cooling influences allowed for a long growing season and concentration, but with plenty of bright acidity and for this vintage this wine saw primarily clones 114, 115, 667, 777, 828 and a touch of Pommard and Wadensvil (2A), the old Swiss clone for complexity. Bibiana Gonzàlez Rave-Pisoni, originally from Colombia, as noted in prior reviews, has an impressive resume from Bordeaux to Cote-Rotie and mostly as the winemaker at Wayfarer, and she also partners her husband, making a thrilled set of Sauvignon Blanc for the Shared Notes label, her own wines are incredible and I highly recommend checking them all out.
($30 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive