Exploring The Best New Releases from Sonoma and Beyond The 2016 Pinot Noir Fog Dance Vineyard is plump, racy and super-inviting. Plush fruit and silky, polished tannins give the Fog Dance a feeling of sensuality that is impossible to miss. Bright red cherry, pomegranate, blood orange, hard candy and rose petal build into the succulent finish.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2016 Pinot Noir Land’s Edge Vineyards reveals a wonderfully expressive nose of pomegranate, red and black cherries and mulberries with touches of rhubarb, forest floor and yeast extract. Medium-bodied, the soft, silken palate has bags of elegance and restraint with red and black fruit layers and earthy accents, finishing with great length.

Exploring The Best New Releases from Sonoma and Beyond The 2016 Pinot Noir (Marin County) is plump, juicy and open-knit, with terrific fruit presence and tons of sheer appeal. Ripe red cherry, pomegranate, blood orange, hard candy and mint are all pushed forward in this racy, alluring Pinot. This is a fabulous appellation-level wine and a real overachiever.

USA, California, Northern California: Napa & Some Sonoma New Releases Aged 17 months in 26% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered, the medium ruby-purple colored 2016 Pinot Noir Truly Rita comes sashaying out of the glass with seriously spicy notions of cinnamon stick, cloves, anise and black pepper with a core of red currant jelly, kirsch and raspberry preserves plus a waft of wild thyme. Medium-bodied, the palate has lovely restraint with elegant red fruit layers framed by soft tannins and seamless freshness, finishing on a mineral note.

The 2017s From Sonoma Lots of strawberries, raspberry, rose hips, and violet notes emerge from the 2016 Pinot Noir Truly Rita, which comes from the Dierberg-Drum Canyon Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills. From a mix of Calera, Swan, and Dijon 115 clones, aged in 26% new French oak, it’s medium-bodied, with an elegant, focused texture, ripe tannins, and some classic Sta. Rita Hills minerality and salinity. It’s showing nicely today yet should cruise for 10-12 years.

USA, California, Northern California: Napa & Some Sonoma New Releases The 2016 Pinot Noir Warrior Princess comes from several blocks in the Zena Crown vineyard, aged for 16 months in 29% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Medium to deep ruby-purple colored, it bursts from the glass with bold black cherries, black raspberries and blueberry scents with hints of spice cake, red roses and red licorice plus a touch of underbrush. Full, rich and packed with perfumed black fruits, it has a plush texture and refreshing lift on the finish.

Exploring The Best New Releases from Sonoma and Beyond The 2016 Pinot Noir Hailey's Block, from Arrendell Vineyard is another very pretty wine in this range. The Hailey's is distinguished by its striking inner perfume and silkiness. Medium in body and gracious, the 2016 has a lot to offer.

Abundantly flavorful and full bodied, this wine has lots of dark berry and black-cherry aromas, a big rich mouthfeel and deep layered fruit flavors sprinkled with spices from cinnamon to bay leaf to black pepper. It tastes extra ripe and has the moderate tannins and good acidity to support that ripeness.

The 2015 Pinot Noir Muldune Trail is pliant, supple and inviting, with striking purity of fruit and terrific overall balance. The sweet red berry fruit and blood orange flavors are beautifully textured in this racy, inviting Pinot. The Muldune Trail is full of Anderson Valley character.

The fruit for this wine is sourced from the estate as well as sites across the appellation. Juicy waves of cherry and cardamom ride a full-bodied, concentrated framework of exotic flavors, bright acidity and velvety texture.

This earthy wine is not loud on the nose in fruit tones, yet brings notes of mushroom, chalky, soot and compost to the fore. It's tannic and dense on the palate, with a forest-floor character alongside notes of savory Asian spice and ripe red fruit.

This is a distinctive and detailed wine that starts with floral and spicy aromas, follows with generous fruit flavors and intriguing accents of tea, rhubarb and wet stone. It's ripe but not overly so, and that little bit of restraint gives it an appealing structured mouthfeel and fine sense of balance.

The 2014 Pinot Noir Jennifer’s is from a vineyard in the so-called Petaluma Wind Gap. This is from the Swiss 123 selection that is known as Wadenswil in Oregon. Very fragrant Volnay-like aromatics of strawberries and cherries are gently touched by some toasty oak. In the mouth, more apple notes emerge from this elegant, dark ruby, medium-bodied Pinot Noir, which seems destined to be consumed over the next 4-6 years.

The 2014 Pinot Noir Fog Dance Vineyard comes from Dijon clones 115, 667 and 777 grown in another cold, windy area in the Green Valley, south of the old hippie town of Forestville. Soft, spicy, tart red cherries in addition to some plum, Asian spice, and forest floor are all present in this luscious, sexy, complex wine that offers up loads of fragrance, medium to full body and a heady finish. Drink it over the next 7-10 years.

Dark reddish purple color in the glass. Embracing aromas of black cherry and dark chocolate lead to a full-bodied wine balanced with muscular tannins and bright acidity. Flavors of anise and dried herbs augment the black cherry core. This wine will certainly improve with more time in bottle and prove to have age ability, but it is hard to resist now.

The 2013 Pinot Noir Far Coast Vineyard, which comes from a mountain ridge north of Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast (408 cases), shows lots of herbaceousness, Japanese green tea notes intermixed with cocoa, black cherries, pomegranate and a hint of earth. This is a spicy, distinctively herbal style of Pinot Noir that readers will either love or not. I did like it, because it offers such a contrast in style to the other Pinot Noirs from Don Hartford’s winery. Drink it over the next 7-8 years.

Moderately dark reddish purple color in the glass. A complex wine of great interest, with aromas of cherry, berry, spice box and nutty oak, and a mid weight plus core of well-spiced red fruits. A seductive offering with a silky mouthfeel.

Dark reddish purple hue in the glass. Highly expressive nose that leads with aromas of dark berries, tea and anise. Highly structured and robust, with flavors of blackberry, ollaliberry and English tea. Concentrated, but elevated with juicy acidity, and offering a suave finish of noticeable intensity.

The beautiful perfume of the 2012 Pinot Noir Fog Dance Vineyard offers notes of red and blackcurrants, plums, Asian soy, forest floor and hints of clove and spice. Medium to full-bodied and ripe, this compelling, delicious Pinot can be enjoyed over the next 7-8 years.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Muldune Trail comes from the southern end of Anderson Valley at a 1,600 foot elevation. It exhibits cool-climate blueberry and raspberry fruit, medium body and lots of elegance. It comes across like a sexy, lush, full-bodied Volnay. Drink it over the next decade.

The vineyard is near Occidental, in the cooler southwestern part of the valley. Although daytime highs can be considerable, the nights cool off rapidly, preserving the vital acidity that’s so noticeable. The flavors show the pure, long hangtime ripeness of all Hartford Court’s 2011s: raspberries, cherries and blood oranges, with deeper notes of dark chocolate and anise liqueur. This wine will have no trouble aging until 2024.

This is the biggest and most alcoholic of the winery’s 2011 Pinots. Strong flavors of raspberry and cherry pie filling, white chocolate and macaroons make it almost sweet, but it’s not. The richness is in the middle palate, while the finish is clean and dry. Lots of people will drink it too soon, but try giving it until 2018–2019 in the cellar.

The structure on this Pinot Noir is superb. It’s brisk and mouthwatering in acidity and firm in tannins, giving the wine an architecture for the fabulous ripe raspberries, cherries, pomegranates and orange zest. Drink after 2019.

Raspberry and cherry fruit flavors, with exotic hints of ripe Christmas persimmons and plum sauce, are upfront and appealing. Beyond the fruit is the most wonderful acidity, courtesy of the chilly vintage. Credit has to go to the grapegrowers who so successfully managed the vintage’s cool challenges.

Juicy dark cherries, mint, licorice, sweet spices and hard candy jump from the glass in the 2011 Pinot Noir Arrendell Vineyard. The style is racy, exuberant and generous, all signatures of the Russian River. A rush of pomegranate, sweet red cherries and rose petals flows through to the finish. The combination of a cool, late ripening, low-yielding site and the Martini Pinot clone (planted in 1975) yield a Pinot of rare distinction and class.