COBB PINOT NOIR COASTLANDS 750ML 2021

Ross Cobb’s 2021 Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard has shut quite a bit since I tasted it earlier in the year. That’s probably a good thing for its long-term prospects. For now, though, readers need to be patient, as the 2021 needs time. It remains an exquisite, crystalline Pinot of the highest level. Chalk, mint, slate and orange peel cut through a core of red-toned fruit. This is an especially nervy style that will appeal most to readers who enjoy taut, cool-climate Pinots.

The 2021 Pinot Noir Coastlands Vineyard comes from vines planted between 1989 and 1998 in marine sedimentary soils at 1,150 feet above sea level. Made with 40% whole clusters, it opens with aromas of saline and red licorice, plus a touch of spicy oak from its recent bottling, over a deep core of pomegranate and lavender. The medium-bodied palate features concentrated, layered flavors supported by a firm frame of chalky tannins and focused acidity, and it has a long finish loaded with latent, spicy accents. It's powerful and nuanced, but it's developing a bit more slowly than the other 2021s. It deserves several years in bottle to unwind and will be long lived. 775 cases were made.

Elegance meets richness, violet and rose petals play alongside tart early season black berries. There palate shows gossamer elements of pine bough, and briny sea spray. freshly turned earth, and pine sap and pomegranate . It finishes lean and linear, fresh notes of black tea. Coastlands is a melange of three sites. In 1998 they planted the 1906 block (there is a oak tree carved with the year on it), as well as the Big Rock block and the older vine Old Firs block was planted in 1989.