James Suckling 99
 
Purple fruit with lavender and seaweed. Hints of volcanic salt and peaches. Full-bodied yet tensioned and very focused. Muscular and very, very long. Flexing with form and beauty. Uniquely Occidental. Mind-blowing sophistication with its own personality. Drink after 2028.
 
Steep, raw and powerful, this hillside monopole vineyard sits mere miles from the cool Pacific Ocean, facing Bodega Bay in between the villages of Freestone and Occidental, where morning fog from the coast engulfs the vineyard. This 1.8-acre site is the oldest meter-by-meter planting of pinot noir on the Sonoma Coast, and due to its high density and steep slope, is farmed 100% by hand. This site presents our coolest and most exotic terroir. Sun-warmed rose petals, wild strawberries, black cherries, and a rainy forest floor fill the bowl. This is followed by notes of muddled blackberry, thyme, pine branches and forni brown mushrooms transporting us to the Redwood forest that surrounds this site. On the palate, there is a beautiful ballet between red berries and dark fruit that is seamlessly intertwined with exotic spice box, zesty orange pith and crushed gravel, giving way to a seemingly everlasting finish.