Bryan Hopkins

9.1

Beautifully complex. The nose reminds me oddly of aromas from elementary school: pencil eraser, chalk dust, perhaps even pencil lead, plus some sour dill pickle. The taste is intensely vegetal: the same dill pickle comes through with tomatillo and other green flavors, ending with a peppery finish. — 2 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

9.7

Fascinating notes of spicy peppers, dill pickle, lime, salt, celery: sort of like a margarita and a Bloody Mary all by itself. — 3 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

7.9

Highly unusual. Funky nose of fungus and mothballs. Sweeter taste of lemon and coconut. — 4 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

8.6

Notes of mint chocolate, praline, and honey. Easy drinking and dessert-like. — 4 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

8.9

Initially the palette presents fruit-forward, but mid-palette notes of earthy wet leaves, bitter chocolate, and acidity present themselves, the bitter and earthy notes lingering on the finish. — 2 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

7.9

The word that comes to me with this wine is “mild.” There are some of the notes on the nose that I want in a North American Pinot Noir like cranberry and bacon fat, but very subdued, with almost an apple cider note. The taste is overly fruit forward and the mouthfeel too soft for my taste. It’s rather like drinking a blend of cranberry and grape juice, and more complex notes emerge only later at a very quiet volume. I rate this at a relatively low point score because this isn’t really what I want from North American Pinot Noir. If you like soft, juicy, easy drinkers, then you might like it better than I did. — 3 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

9.0

Smell of butterscotch candies and funky peat, subtle hints of sherry and lemon-scented wood polish behind that. On the taste, cherry-menthol cough drop, wood, slight blue cheese, and maybe a bit of pecan-praline. — 4 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

9.1

I am tasting the 2018 vintage. Beautiful complex scent of black tea, wood, bacon, potpourri, wet autumn leaves. On the taste, very tart cherry, eucalyptus, black tea, almost a bit of bone marrow. Highly tannic and astringent. Mushroom finish. — 2 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

8.9

Scent of butterscotch, croissant, and dried peach. The taste is Scotch-like, with noticeable peat, hardware store wood, caramel, and vanilla modulating on the tongue into burnt pecan and bitter dark chocolate that lingers on the finish. — 3 years ago

Bryan Hopkins

8.9

Nose of cotton candy, sweet chocolate, peat, and lemon. Much stronger taste of peat and charred wood, with a softer lemon sweetness behind. Finish of bitter chocolate and coffee. — 4 years ago