2016 Pisoni Estate, Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, Monterey County.
It was a great pleasure to taste this 10 year old Pisoni Estate Pinot out of magnum recently with Mark Pisoni, the man responsible for for growing the fabled grapes that go into this wine, and I can tell you that it is aging beautifully and is a stunning effort with depth, elegance and incredible length. This dark garnet/ruby Pinot from the 2016 vintage has a firm structure and a silken medium/full bodied palate and surprisingly youthful, needing some time in the glass to full open up, with dark berries, black cherry, wild plum and some blood orange fruits, along with some well integrated toasty oak, briar spice, cola bean, bergamot, a touch of truffle, cinnamon and subtle vanilla notes. The vintage gave an awkward gripping nature when young, but these 2016s have really turned on the charm now and Pisoni’s top wine is a stunner, with another decade of life easily at this point. The Pisoni’s say the Pisoni Pinot Noir was all hand-picked from various blocks on different soils, including sand, loam, granite, marine sediments and bits of quartz, seeing careful sorting, a cold soak and a native yeast fermentation with partial whole cluster. After which, he adds, this wine is aged in barrel, racked with gravity flow into selected French oak with a high percentage of new wood, without racking or moving for 10 months. Bottling is then carried out carefully after final blending to tank, and as always, the Pisoni Pinot is unfined and unfiltered. It was great to see Mark and his dad Gary at the recent Santa Lucia Highlands event, and taste through their current 2024 Lucia bottlings, which were as sublime as anything they’ve made before, and enjoy this lovely 2016 Pisoni Estate Pinot!
The Santa Lucia Highlands, and Monterey owe much to the pioneering spirit of the Pisoni family, led by Gary Pisoni and his sons Mark and Jeff, the winemaker, and this Pisoni Estate Pinot Noir is maybe the region’s best and most coveted wine. As I’ve said here before, Gary, who one of the great personalities of California wine, who created this iconic Pinot Noir, with his passion for wine and the region, led him to start planting grapes here back in 1982. Much has already been written about his achievements, his stories, like his bringing of La Tâche cuttings home in his socks to plant here. The Pisoni label was founded in 1998 and that first release set new standards for Santa Lucia Highlands wines and the latest release continues enjoy its place in the elite league of California Pinots. Gary’s enthusiasm lights up a room, you can’t help but to love the man, for his style and humble grace wrapped up in an extroverted personality, much like the Pisoni Estate wines taste! I will forever be a huge fan of Gary for all he’s done for Monterey wines and the next generation here at Pisoni very much pay tribute to him and are striving to be better and better each year. There’s a deep collection of quality offerings here with the Pisoni family, with these Pisoni Estate offerings being the pinnacle of their efforts, but not far behind are their Lucia Vineyards wines, including the Garys’ Vineyard Pinot Noir, Soberanes Vineyard Syrah and the Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay, all of which I highly recommend, plus the related, Lucy Wines, with the Rosé and Gamay being fun and delicious. It might be hard to find this 2016 Pisoni Estate Pinot, but I can say, most everything that Jeff Pisoni makes is outstanding, so I highly recommend grabbing anything you see!
($85-100 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive