Sierra Madre Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley (Santa Barbara County, California) Pinot Noir 2008

 This wine is a single-clone selection (specifically Pommard 5) from the Sierra Madre estate vineyard.  The wine combines wonderful intensity of dark berry-fruit aromas and flavors with great precision of flavor.  It’s a big California Pinot but relatively restrained and focused within that genre, while retaining the richness that you might expect.  Its alcohol is full-blown at 13.%, but the wine has plenty of definition.