Merry Edwards Winery, Anderson Valley (Mendocino County, California) Pinot Noir 2022

 This is the winery’s first release from this site (and, indeed, from any site outside of Sonoma County), and it is a stunner.  The vineyard name is pronounced, “Dash,” and it is a prime site owned by Roederer, the French company that purchased the Merry Edwards Winery not long ago, and has either developed properties or purchased and polished some of the world’s diamond-grade wineries.  This is a model of how great skill in both growing and winemaking can produce Pinot showing both power and purity, which this shows in abundance.  The very expressive aromas lead with notes of wild strawberry, red cherry and rhubarb pie filling, with spicy accents that suggest the influence of wood but really don’t smell of oak.  All these notes echo on the palate, and again, there’s no sense of astringent wood tannin in the wine’s texture, which reinforces the impression that this is based on truly great fruit that was respected at the highest level from the beginning of the growing season to when the wine was released to the market.  Merry Edwards Pinots have always been a bit sneaky in how well they age, as their track record is one of such immediate deliciousness that far too few bottles ever survive to display their capacity for positive development for a decade or more.  All early indications are that the wines — now made by Heidi von der Mehden — will continue along this admirable line.