Today’s Pinot Noir was actually crafted by a good friend of mine as well as a rising star, Bradley Brown of Big Basin Vineyards. There is no doubt that he is one of the top producers in the appellation; after slowly refining his style over the past decade, he now produces perfumed, Burgundian styled Pinot Noir that can easily go head-to-head with the country's best. If you are not familiar with the appellation, the Santa Cruz Mountains covers an area that begins about twenty miles south of San Francisco and stretches more than fifty miles south to Watsonville, just southeast of the town of Santa Cruz. The east-facing slopes and valleys that look towards the Silicon Valley and San Jose enjoy warmer temperatures and are well suited to warm-weather grapes like Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel whereas the vineyards on the western slopes of the range are exposed to the cool and foggy Pacific ocean influences that force cool-weather Burgundian varietals to slowly ripen in optimal conditions. It is from one of these fog kissed vineyards on the southwestern side of the appellation that Bradley crafts today’s stunning Pinot Noir. I’ve had the distinct privilege over the years of watching Bradley’s wine evolve and achieve even greater quality vintage after vintage. The 2012 Big Basin Pinot Noir from Lester Vineyard was his best Pinot Noir I had tasted until the 2013 arrived and blew its predecessor away. Serious attention and accolades have been showering Bradley from just about every direction. With all the well-deserved, wide acclaim, I am clearly not the only one to treasure the beauty in his wines.

Bradley’s land has some interesting history; originally cultivated by French immigrants in the late 1800’s, his winery sits on the actual site of the original that was ravaged by a fire in the 1970’s. In the fields, Bradley uses fully sustainable and certified organic farming methods to tend his own vines, which are mainly planted to Rhone varietals due to his warmer locale that is a bit further away from the sea. This particular Pinot Noir was sourced from the Lester Family Vineyard; a unique site, nestled a short drive south of his winery, it is advantageously situated about four miles east of the ocean and is blessed with the perfect balance of fog and sunshine amidst a breathtaking redwood forest. To craft this terroir-driven Pinot Noir, he used roughly 75% whole clusters during fermentation, which lends striking similarities to the wines of Morey Saint Denis and Domaine Dujac. Thanks to the pitch-perfect growing season and ripeness of the clusters’ stems, this choice along with picking slightly earlier in the season than the past has resulted in an old world charm to the final wine that is simply magnificent. Aged for fifteen months in French oak, this wine was bottled without fining or filtration. At just 12.8% alcohol, this example is an elegant, restrained Pinot Noir that represents the greatest potential of the cool sites for the varietal within the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The 2013 Lester Vineyard Pinot Noir exhibits a concentrated red ruby core with light garnet reflections on the rim. The intense nose is everything we love in top quality Pinot Noir. It delivers highly perfumed notes of crushed wild flowers, wild strawberries, black cherry, huckleberries, fennel, damp forest and the perfect touch of new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied and the flavors confirm the fruit on the nose along with additional notes of pomegranate, just ripened cherry, wet rose petals and wild herbs coupled with the perfect tension between fruit and earth. This wine is epic now, but the real experience will be found in 5-6 years. During my career, it has become clear that wines made with a majority of whole clusters do not come close to their peak until 7-8 years after bottling. The wait will be worth it; I promise you will be stunned by what you encounter with a little patience. If drinking this wine now, uncork a few hours prior to serving and leave it in the cellar to slowly open; then, serve at about 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems. This wine has lots of earth and should be enjoyed with a serious meal along with great friends.