2016 Rochioli, Pinot Noir, Estate Grown, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.
I’m still very much a fan of these Rochioli Pinots, and I always am wonderfully impressed with these wines when they have some age on them, like I was here with this 2016 Estate Grown bottling which is drinking fabulously well, it has evolved nicely and offers up a deep core of fruit, secondary elements and seductive mouth feel. These 2016s, from California’s cooler regions, were a bit chewy and awkward when young, but are now really coming around, with this dark garnet/brick/ruby hued wine showing off classic Russian River flavors, black cherry, dark berry, plum and chocolatey fig fruits, along with wilted roses, smokey vanilla, earthy truffle, cola bean, sassafras and cedary notes. The tannin structure is now very silky and there’s still a good cut of acidity underneath the luxurious medium bodied palate and this Estate Grown Pinot was brilliant with food and was a lovely sipper after dinner as well. I always enjoy a visit to the winery and their beautifully situated tasting room on Westside Road, west of Healdsburg, and look forward to a future visit and trying some of the newer releases. One of California’s top producers and Pinot pioneers in modern times, Rochioli is a rock solid label and a priority for collectors and Pinot enthusiasts, which I most definitely highly recommend.
The Rochioli, as mentioned here in my prior reviews, which started as a estate wine back in 1983, after originally being known as Fenton Acres, when Joe and his son Tom Rochioli, who were second and third generation Italian farmers, became pioneers of Russian River Pinots. Joe, famously, always believed it was the grapes and individual sites that make the best and most intriguing wines here on their historic estate that sits on sloping hillsides on the bench lands above the near by Russian River, which sucks in the cool Pacific Ocean air, and not too far from Healdsburg on the famous Westside Road. Tom Rochioli, at the helm in the cellar here since the later part of the 1980s, and his winemaking team, ferment each block separately in traditional fashion, 100% de-stemmed, using a mainly hands off approach, they, as noted, he firmly believes the wine is made, first and foremost in the vineyard and it should not be messed with in the cellar. They are not afraid or shy to employ some new toasty French oak to their rich, deeply concentrated and expressive Pinots, but this usually integrates very nicely, as seen here with their 2016 vintage wines, and certainly here with this one. Rochioli’s lineup, obviously is focused on Pinot Noir, but they also do a fabulous collection of Chardonnays, which also age well, Sauvignon Blancs and they even do a tasty Valdiguie, once called “Napa” Gamay, a very unique wine I always try get, when I visit the tasting room.
($99 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive