93 John Gilman - View from the Cellar

The 2019 Pinot Noir “Petaluma Gap” from Stewart Johnson’s Kendric Vineyards is once again outstanding and a great, great value. The wine includes thirty-five percent whole clusters this year and was raised for two years in cask prior to bottling without filtration. Twenty-five percent of the casks were new this year for the wine, which comes in at a svelte thirteen percent octane. The wine offers up a refined aromatic constellation of cherries, strawberries, cinnamon, mustard seed, a touch of beetroot, a lovely base of soil, woodsmoke and a nice touch of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied, young and transparent, with a lovely core of red fruit, tangy acids, fine focus and grip and a long, complex and moderately tannic finish. This will want a handful of years in the cellar to properly blossom. It is a very elegant example of west coast pinot noir.