Windrun Sta Rita Hills Pinot Noir – Prime Pinot!

A perfect Saturday Splurge.

100% Pinot Noir from Santa Rita Hills, Santa Ynez Valley, Central Coast of California. The wine was aged in neutral 500 liter puncheons for 10 months.

This review is brought to you by Windrun Wine, bringing you great wines at great prices.

The Windrun Sta Rita Hills Pinot Noir has an SRP of $33 (Saturday Splurge). Sample submitted for review.

From the bottle:

Sta. Rita Hills is an appellation at the western end of the Santa Ynez Valley that has earned acclaim for its Pinot Noir. Warm days and cool, foggy nights provide ideal growing conditions for this varietal. Our wine comes from the Lafond Vineyard and is a blend of 5 clones. This complex wine reflects the rich, concentrated 2013 harvest. It exhibits classic blackberry fruit aromatics that blend with a bit of brown spice and a hint of smoke and minerality. Flavors showcase an excellent dark berry character with hints of earth tones. A full-bodied palate with a long, savory finish makes it the perfect complement to hearty meat and game dishes.

Windrun selects the best wines from the vineyards of coastal California and blends them to express the finest characteristics of each varietal. Then, we offer them to you at outstanding values.

14.3% Alcohol

Santa Rita Hills (officially abbreviated as Sta. Rita Hills so as not to step on the toes of the large Chilean wine company) is a renowned cool climate wine region within the larger Santa Ynez Valley AVA. Thanks to its unique geography which allows it to receive cooling influences from the Pacific on three sides, it makes a fabulous spot to grow Pinot Noir. The name “Windrun” even reflects this fact as it is a measure of the flow of cool breezes through a vineyard in the afternoon and evening.

These factors push the price of today’s wine above $20, as is the case with a lot of Pinot Noir. That said, we’re not opposed to spending more if the quality of the wine merits it. We like to call these selections Saturday Splurges (see our other picks in this category here) and today’s wine is a great example to splurge on.

The 2013 Windrun Sta Rita Hills Pinot Noir begins with a classic Pinot aroma done very well — black cherry, cola, licorice and nice touches of baking spice and mint. Tasting the medium to full-bodied wine reveals a wonderful combination of deep, tart, sweet dark berry and cherry fruit plus excellent earthy notes to balance it out. Smooth and savory, this is a heck of a nice example of Pinot Noir. It ends long, dry and grippy with lots of lingering cola notes.

This review is brought to you by Windrun Wines. Buy the Windrun Sta Rita Hills Pinot Noir direct from the winery here.