2017 Alma Fria Pinot Noir Doc's Ranch Vineyard Sonoma Coast 750 ml

Carroll Kemp is a rare winemaker: both insanely talented and also totally uninterested in the spotlight. Robert Parker said he has “the Midas Touch when it comes to producing wines of character,” and his wines—like the coastal inflected ones he made at Red Car—nearly always get snapped up by sommeliers at first-class restaurants like The French Laundry, SingleThread, and Atlanta’s Miller Union. 

Such is the case with Alma Fria, an under-the-radar winery we’ve been chasing ever since Kemp started making wines for them. Their 2017 Doc’s Ranch Pinot is a gorgeous Sonoma Coast bottling that belongs in the upper echelon with RAEN, Marcassin, and Littorai—and it’s almost impossible to get. 

Doc’s Ranch is one of the coolest sites on the Sonoma Coast, rising to nearly 1,000 feet in elevation and blessed with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean and the Pt. Reyes seashore. The coastal influence makes for dramatic wines that combine the late-afternoon sunshine’s ripeness with the bright minerality of the cold ocean.

Kemp believes that winemaking is more listening than doing, so he exercises a light touch in the winery. There’s moderate inclusion of whole clusters during fermentation, which give the wine a nice savory character, and it’s guided by native yeasts for additional complexity before being pressed at dryness for moderate extraction. The result is a naked expression of one of the most distinctive sites out there—and it’s available without having to fight for a space on wait- and mailing-lists. For now, at least.