Plush, silky, pretty.
Joe Wagner makes five single vineyard Pinot Noirs under the Belle Glos label. The vineyards are: Las Alturas (planted high in the Santa Lucia highlands), Taylor Lane (close to the ocean and resulting fog on the coast) and this Clark & Telephone in Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara. The Dairyman Vineyard Pinot Noir is the fourth, which hails from Russian River, also very near the Pacific Ocean, and the fifth from the Napa side of Carneros is called Eulenloch. I have never tasted the latter.
This 2019 Clark & Telephone showcases plump cherry and raspberry aromas, which meld with vanilla, star anise, cinnamon, brown sugar, forest floor, tealeaf and sweet cocoa. It has a plush palate redolent with fat juicy raspberry, black cherry and vanilla flavours. Nice depth and concentration here, it is silky and lands squarely on the potent end of the Pinot spectrum.
©copyright 2021 Daenna Van Mulligen
Wine Scores Reviewed - November 30th, 2021