2022 Cattleya Wines, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast.
One of the best and most seductive of the 2022 Sonoma Coast Pinots I’ve tried so is this Cattleya Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir from winemaker Bibiana Gonzalez Rave-Pisoni, who’s Syrahs are some of my all time favorite wines in California, with lovely fruit density, silken texture and beautiful aromatics. The opulent, poised and elegant medium bodied palate shows off ripe black cherry, dark berry, plum and tangy pomegranate fruits, along with wilted roses, delicate brown and red spices, blood orange, smooth vanilla and wood smoke. The long satiny finish is very impressive carrying the fruit into an incredible long after taste and the balance is sublime, adding some subtle savory, lifting acidity and mineral tones as it opens up. I was lucky to taste this one with the winemaker and told me about the extra care that goes into her wines which see a long cold soak, gentle maceration and gravity flow only handling of the wine at her state of the art facility she shares with the Pisoni family winemaker and husband Jeff Pisoni in the Santa Rosa area. This basic appellation cuvée Bibiana says is born from cool climate coastal vineyards resting at over 1,000 feel of elevation, and the Sun Chase and Nightwing vineyards with she calls an incredibly diverse selection of Pinot Noir clones, including 115, 667, 777, Mt Eden and Swan. This Sonoma Coast was made with 100% fully de-stemmed fruit and was fermented with 100% indigenous yeasts in open top stainless steel tanks, with twice daily hand punchdowns, that Gonzalez Rave-Pisoni explains, extracts a remarkable color, tannins, and rich and complex flavors. Upon completion of the primary fermentation, the wine was lightly pressed and transferred to 60% new French oak barrels where it was matured for fifteen months before its bottling without filtration.
As mentioned here many times, Bibiana Gonzalez Rave-Pisoni, the Colombian born winemaker and vineyard consultant, is making some stunning wines, especially those under her signature Cattleya label, which includes an incredible set of Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, as seen here, and her awesome Syrah offerings from her husband’s family’s vines in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Gonzalez Rave-Pisoni’s stints in at some of the world’s great estates has helped her develop her love of place and to get the best out of each terroir, it also showed in her work when at Pahlmeyer with her Wayfarer Pinot Noirs from the Seaview/Sonoma Coast. Her talents are really on display here in the wines she does under her own label Cattleya, which she founded in 2012, and tens years on now the wines are getting even better. Bibiana Gonzalez Rave-Pisoni, who’s travelled the world to learn and make wine, is one of California’s hottest talents and part of a serious power couple with husband Jeff Pisoni of the Pisoni Estate and former winemaker at Peter Michael. Again as noted before, Bibiana started her journey in wine at University in Cognac getting her first degree there in 2001, before moving on to Bordeaux and achieving a higher degree with honors in enology, all of which led her to winemaking stints at some famous Chateaux and small domaines including Château Haut-Brion in Pessac-Leognan as well as with Domaine Stéphane Ogier in Côte-Rôtie along with small family estates in Alsace, Burgundy and far away in South Africa. I really enjoyed catching up with Bibiana recently and tasting through her latest wines, all of which showed fantastically well and I highly recommend her newest efforts, including this one, the stellar The Temptress Russian River Chardonnay as well as her and Jeff’s 2023 Shared Notes Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon white Bordeaux style wine.
($65 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive