2014 Saintsbury Pinot Noir Carneros Napa Valley 750 ml

A True Taste of California Pinot Noir

We can’t think of a more classic expression of California Pinot Noir than the 2014 Saintsbury Carneros Pinot. Consider this trifecta: It hails from one of California’s marquee Pinot regions, is produced by one of the most revered wineries in the region, and represents the California Pinot Noir vintage that Decanter called “five-star” and Wine Advocate rated 94 points: the best ever in Northern California! Founded by David Graves and the late Richard Ward in the 1970s, Saintsbury deserves credit not only for pioneering Burgundian wines in California but for making the Carneros region synonymous with the style. Saintsbury Carneros Pinot has been a mainstay on restaurant wine lists for the last two decades, for the exact same reasons it deserves a case’s worth of space in your cellar: It’s a true taste of California Pinot Noir, supplying sweet red fruit, a complex nose, and silky structure.

Burgundian. Now that Pinot Noir is a global cash cow, that term is thrown around a little carelessly. But four decades ago, when two UC Davis graduate students named David Graves and Richard Ward founded Saintsbury on a shared love for Burgundy, producing wine in the Burgundian style was a wild idea. So, in Saintsbury’s corner of Carneros, that adjective has always been borderline-sacred.

A couple of weeks ago, while visiting the winery, David reminded us of the ethos that has guided the winery from those early days: "From the outset, these are our guiding principles,” he told us, “it means 100% Pinot Noir without fail. Winemaking serves the vineyards and respects the unique aromatic character of the grape and the site. Barrels are there for elevage, the French term for the advancement and enhancement of the young wine. And no two vintages are alike—so we have to respect that too.”

In some vintages, that must have required iron will, faith, and patience. In others, like 2014, taking what nature gave Saintsbury was an unalloyed pleasure. Wine Advocate’s ratings date back well past the publication’s founding, and in them, no Northern California Pinot Noir vintage has ever scored higher than 2014. None. Decanter magazine was similarly sanguine about the season, saying that “the real success story in 2014 was Pinot Noir,” and calling the wines “deep, supple and site-expressive, structured around ripe tannins and bright acidity.”

Sourced from loam and clay vineyards on the flatlands and slopes of Carneros, where the fog rolls in from San Pablo Bay then burns off as the day warms up, the grapes for the 2014 Pinot Noir arrived at Saintsbury within an hour of being night-harvested. The wine was aged for 8 months in French oak, a modest proportion of new barrels, just 15 percent, imparting warmth and a touch of spice to the wine. This is a California Burgundian classic, not only from a fantastic vintage but from one of the wineries that happily taught California wine drinkers what Burgundian means. Don’t miss out on this one.