2014 Anthill Farms, Pinot Noir, Tina Marie Vineyard, Russian River Valley.
The latest Anthill Pinot from the cool climate Green Valley’s Tina Marie Vineyard, part of the greater Russian River Valley AVA, is a bright and focused wine with beautiful light garnet and ruby hues in the glass and vivid fruit throughout, this is very pure Pinot Noir with style and substance with potential to get even better. There’s a lot to admire here with soft silky textures lifted with nice acidity and fine tannins that compliment the rich cherry, raspberry, plum and cranberry fruit layers. Subtle wood spice, cinnamon, dried roses, violets and blueberry skin add to the complexity, be sure to give this young wine time to unveil it’s true and full nature as it takes a few minutes at this stage to start going with shy and youthful character and some tart edges that really smooth out with air. Again, Anthony Filiberti and the gang at Anthill Farms have put together an amazing set of wines in the 2014 vintage, these very hard to get offerings are outstanding and well worth the time, energy and money to search out, so far my favorites have been this Tina Marie and the Baker Ranch Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs, but all of them will impress. The Tina Marie is like an expressive Cote de Beaune leading with tangy red fruits, bramble and rustic charm, subtle mineral, earthy loam and oak all well judged behind the outgoing Russian River fruit, and at about 13% it is a poised and elegant example of high end Pinot. While not overtly sexy or flamboyant, this Tina Marie is still a thrill and should get more exotic and seductive with another few years in bottle, be patient and be rewarded, this is lovely stuff.
($57 Est.) 92+ Points, grapelive