2019 Aston Estate Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast California

The 2019 Aston Estate Pinot Noir comes from Aston Estate’s 14-acre vineyard in the rugged northern Sonoma Coast near Annapolis, where the remote site and cool coastal conditions shape a distinctive expression of Pinot Noir. The vineyard was planted in 2001 with Dijon clones 115, 667 and 777, and by 2019 the vines had reached roughly 20 years of age. Aston produced only 550 cases of this estate bottling, making the wine a particularly small-production expression of the property. 

The wine has a savory opening of white pepper, forest floor, dried herbs and menthol before moving into red and blue fruit, raspberry and boysenberry. Tea notes appear toward the finish alongside persistent tannins and fresh acidity. It was aged in 100% French oak, 33% of it new, using barrels from Ermitage, François Frères and Remond. Aston describes the 2019 as a wine with the structure to develop for decades in the cellar, while Wine Spectator noted its boysenberry and blackberry fruit, anise, mesquite and wild character.