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2014 El Molino, Pinot Noir, Rutherford, Napa Valley, California, USA

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Full Bodied
  • Pinot Noir
Ready, but will keep
Jancis Robinson MW
17/20
Product: 20141505607
2014 El Molino, Pinot Noir, Rutherford, Napa Valley, California, USA

Description

Between 70 and 100 percent whole-cluster depending on the vintage, the wine is foot-trodden before going into a traditional basket press. With natural yeasts, the wine spends 10 months in 70 percent new François Frères barrels, is then racked off its lees and then undergoes a further eight months’ ageing in barrel, then one year in bottle prior to release. At 14 percent alcohol, this Pinot is perfectly formed, with bright red fruit and rose perfume alongside well-integrated and handled tannins. There is a density that is a nod to Napa, but a measured character that is rather more “Old World” in style.
Fiona Hayes, Wine Buyer 
Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2014
Alcohol % 14.2
Maturity Ready, but will keep
Grape List Pinot Noir
Body Full Bodied
Producer El Molino Winery

Critics reviews

Jancis Robinson MW 17/20
Pale to mid ruby. Pale rim. Old-fashioned California Pinot nose with more than a hint of the old Joseph Swan examples. Great for nostalgia. I wonder where the vineyard is? Totally seductive and ready. Why haven’t Californians snapped this up? Mushrooms and violets. And it tastes a good 10 years older than it is. Long and flattering but not sickly. jancis_robinson_mw, JancisRobinson.com (8th November 2019)
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (Nov 2019)

About this wine

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or. Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
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