2018 Neely, Pinot Noir, Hidden Block, Spring Ridge Estate Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains.
The 2018 vintage of Neely’s Hidden Block Pinot Noir is wonderfully evolving and satiny on the palate with a rich fruit intensity and a smooth appealing mouth feel, along with subtle wood notes and a pretty long finish. This dark ruby/crimson Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot is quite lush and pleasing with layers of black cherry, raspberry, sweet strawberry and wild plum fruits, as well as delicate spices, cola bean, orange/bergamot, a light sense of toasty oak and wilted roses. 2018 gave good acidity and cool tones, but still feels expressively forward and deep in flavor, making this wine easy to love, especially at this stage, and it will find a wide range admirers. Just six barrels of the Hidden Block was made in the 2018 vintage with only 146 cases being released by the Neely family. I first came to know the Neely wines, from Jim Varner in the early 2000s, who made some outstanding wines under his own label from the vineyards here, especially his Chardonnays from Bee Block, Picnic Block and Amphitheater Block, at the Spring Ridge Vineyard, which I really loved, so it was interesting to have a more recent Neely effort. Grown on marine sedimentary soils and seeing cool Pacific fog conditions, in the mornings and evenings, but warm eastern slope days, which leads to a perfect ripening micro climate, here n the north Santa Cruz Mountains. Planted in 1997, Hidden Block has Dijon clone 115 and is typically all carefully selected, de-stemmed and traditionally hand crafted with moderate new oak used. This delicious vintage was made by Shalini Sekhar, who has now left Neely, to focus on her Ottavino label and continue working with a small collection of consulting clients, including the highly regarded Waits-Mast.
The Neely estate is located at the northern boundary of the oak and redwood tree forested Santa Cruz Mountains, with their Spring Ridge Vineyard running from the floor of Portola Valley up the ridge toward Windy Hill. It was in 1980 that the Melchor family (original owners) asked the Varner brothers, who made the property famous with some outstanding Chardonnays, to plant the original Chardonnay and some Gewürztraminer on the lower portion of the property. The vines are at harvest 45 now, all these years later, were planted block by block down the ridge below the historic house, creating the three Chardonnay Blocks that are now legendary, thanks again to the Varners. These unique parcels were made into distinctive and separate wines, known as Home Block, the Amphitheater Block, always a favorite of mine, and the rare Bee Block. With the success of the Chardonnay here and the rise of Pinot Noir in the 1990s, the Neely family began planting Pinot Noir in 1995 and started stewarding the property themselves, making a long term commitment to viticulture and wine. By the early 2000s Pinot Noir planting, including Hidden Block, as seen here, the Upper Picnic Block, and the main Picnic Blocks started showing real potential with them even rivaling the quality of the Chardonnay here. In 2024, Winemaker Sarah Green, formerly of FEL Wines and Savoy Vineyard, joined the team at Neely bringing her viticultural and winemaking expertise to the estate and is guiding the Neely’s daughter Lucy in the cellar and leading the new generation here into the future. It will be exciting to see where the wines here at Neely go in the coming years and I will be checking them out more often now, with this wine having made a solid impression and I recommend checking out the remaining 2018, plus their 2021 and 2023s, which should be even better!
($60 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive