The 2021 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands was matured for 10 months in 25% new French oak. It has pure aromas of red cherry, cranberry, pipe tobacco, orange peel and potpourri. The medium-bodied palate features powerful, perfumed flavors. It has a grainy texture, focused acidity and a long finish layered with spice and earth nuances. 1,530 cases produced.

Winemaker Matt Revelette manages to make his appellation blends sing. This bottling is wonderfully ripe and juicy with red-fruit aromas but also cinnamon brioche and loamy earth on the nose. The texture is tense and the acidity tingles on the palate, where juicy black cherry, baked strawberry and cocoa-spice flavors work in harmony.

Black raspberries, toasted spice, dried flowers, and some savory herb notes all emerge from the 2021 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands, a terrific, medium-bodied, supple, yet nicely concentrated Pinot Noir. It's delicious now but will evolve for 7-8 years. This comes from a mix of the Sierra Mar, Garys', Rosella's, and Kitewinder vineyards, was 90% destemmed, and spent 10 months in 25% new French oak.

The 2021 Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands) is a very pretty wine. Crushed flowers, spice, mint, red cherry fruit and orange peel are nicely lifted. There's good energy here, even if the 2021 feels a bit light, especially in the mid-palate.