Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir

Another mind freak…big structure on this than I would have thought..raging acid and more tannic than I thought…good, but not what i thought it would be..

I was going to get the 2009 Domaine Leroy Bourgogne but, that turned out to pretty much vinegar. Not our bottle. You have to order wine from the Nepenthe menu with restaurants suffering through lost Covid-19 business. We brought a 2010 Williams Selyem. That will have to wait for another day.

Bottle is delicious just starting to show some brickish on the edge of the glass. Not sure why I don’t see more of this producer on Delectable. They really do make some outstanding Pinot Noirs.

The nose reveals ripe & somewhat candied; black cherries, cranberries, pomegranate, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries with shades of rhubarb. Savory meats, light smoke, fresh tobacco notes, steeped fruit tea, limestone minerals, dry crush rocks, dark spice, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, clove, vanilla, mostly dry, dark, earth, red licorice/cola, cherry kirsch liqueur notes with fresh & withering; dark, red, blue, purple florals set in a field of violet & lavender.

The palate is, juicy, round, ripe and lush with nice viscosity. Ripe & somewhat candied; black cherries, cranberries, pomegranate, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries with shades of rhubarb. Savory meats, light smoke, fresh tobacco notes, steeped fruit tea, limestone minerals, dry crush rocks, dark spice with some pronounced heat, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, clove, vanilla, sage, mostly dry, dark, earth, dry top soil, underbrush, red licorice/cola, cherry kirsch liqueur notes with fresh & withering; dark, red, blue, purple florals set in a field of violet & lavender. The acidity is really nice...flowing like a cool gentle stream. The long finish is; round, sexy, well balanced fruit & earth, elegant, well polished and persist nicely ending with pronounced mid dark spice on the long set.

Littorai's 2016 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard is gorgeous, but it also is going to need quite a bit of time to come together, as the tannins are quite piercing at this early stage. Chalk, white pepper, mint, blood orange and red berry fruit give the Hirsch its distinctive aromatic signatures. As promising as the 2016 is, there is not much pleasure to be found today. Readers should plan on being patient. (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, May 2019)

Ted Lemon is a Sonoma coast master

Silky tannin, solid core, persistent spice character. Could have easily benefited from another year or two but was lovely to drink at (nearly) age 7.

1.5L

Wonderful aromatics, high acid, light but not flabby. Nice balance

Pretty cherries and everything I want a Pinot to be. So well balanced and tannins and acid were well integrated. A treat. As we discussed, a good winemaker makes beautiful wine no matter what the vintage.

Littorai Hirsch, from the 1998 vintage. We received 150 inches of rain in the winter of 97-98, the last big El Niño year. The clarity and deliciousness of this wine represents a triumph in winemaking over very challenging conditions.

Another awesome wine from one of my all time favorite producers.