2018 PATZ & HALL PINOT NOIR, SONOMA COAST CALIFORNIA

James Hall blends this wine from 18 vineyards, mostly in the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley. He lets the fermentation start slowly, with ambient yeasts, then finishes it with cultured yeasts, aging the wine in French oak barrels (45 percent new) and bottling it unfiltered. The wine is beefy and youthfully tannic, even as the color is transparent in the glass. Behind the tannins, there’s a tight, cool and saline pinot with plush black-cherry flavors.