2021 Reeve Wines, Pinot Noir “Special Reserve” Sonoma Coast.
It was nice to catch up briefly with Noah Dorrance, of Reeve Wines, recently as he showed off his latest stuff at a portfolio tasting in San Francisco, where he had his sublime 2021 Special Reserve Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, one of my favorites on the day. This dark ruby Pinot is lush, opulent and still brightly focused showing off black cherry, plum, crushed raspberry and blood orange fruit layers, along with cinnamon, mineral tones, rose petals, cola bean and sassafras notes. There’s lots to enjoy and admire here with subtle earth, a savory under current, and a bit of spice as well as smoothly integrated wood add to the performance that will impress Pinot lovers. Coming from a barrel selection of 32 different lots made with grapes sourced from prime Sonoma Coast AVA vineyards, that could include, depending on vintage, the Charles Heinz Vineyard in Occidental, the Thorn Ridge Vineyard, in the Sebastopol Hills, and the famous Rice-Spivak Vineyard, really close to the Ocean southwest of Sebastopol. These cool hillside sites have a common thread of Goldridge soils, but have some subtle additions of mixed clays and volcanic influences and have a good range of clones from Swan, 115, 667, 777 to Pommard, all of helps with depth, complexity, aromatics and lifting acidity. Dorrence and winemaker Katy Wilson make for a great partnership, making authentic wines that have old world inspiration and a Californian soul.
Reeve Wines, as mentioned in prior reviews, was founded by Noah and Kelly Dorrance, who hit the ground running with an all-star winemaking team that included Ross Cobb, of Cobb Wines and Katy Wilson of LaRue Winery and has kept getting better and better with each new set of releases with this 2023 collection being the best yet, especially Noah’s awesome Heinz Chardonnay, all the Pinots, including this Special Reserve and his brilliantly crisp Vermentino, plus the estate Sangiovese. Noah and Kelly have special love for Tuscany, where they got married, and in particular Cortona, which is home to one of Italy’s most intriguing wineries, d’Alessandro, and it inspired them to try their luck at Italian varietals like Sangiovese and Vermentino. As I’ve said repeatedly, I really enjoyed all of the wines here at Reeve, this was a serious and delicious array of wines, which still has the talented hands of Katy Wilson guiding Noah’s stylish and desirable efforts. The winery based in Healdsburg is mostly focused on cooler hillside fruit, native ferments with some whole cluster, and work with sustainable vineyards that provide grapes that excel in purity and vibrancy, as this 2021 Special Reserve Pinot Noir, which came in at 13.6%, clearly displays. Dorrance, who started in the winery game as a partner in Banshee Wines, now has Reeve, started in 2015, as his signature line, as well as his under the radar label BloodRoot Wines, which includes rarities like an Albariño and a Chenin that are worth chasing down too.
($78 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive