Three Sticks Wines, Sonoma County (California) Pinot Noir 2022

 The Chardonnays and Pinots from Three Sticks are only sold direct to consumers from the winery, so I don’t have a lot of experience with them.  However, what experience I do have has been very positive, and that’s certainly true for this bottling.  It is assembled from all six of the producer’s estate vineyards in different locations across Sonoma County, yet it does not seem at all like bottom-of-barrel leavings that were dumped into a blending tank.  On the contrary, when the cork is pulled, it seems like high-end Burgundy from a top Côte de Beaune site in Volnay, with lots of taut acidity and fine-grained tannin that structures ultra-pure but tightly coiled fruit.  As the wine uncoils a bit, it shows bright notes recalling un-sugared red pie cherries and cranberries that become sweeter and more generous every half hour as the wine opens in contact with oxygen.  Noting this positive development, I simply left the opened bottle uncorked on my tasting bench for 24 hours, and when returning to it, it was vastly better for its “day off” rather than showing any negative oxidation.  The fruit notes had filled in with suggestions of Bing cherries, and savory notes akin to fresh, cleaned mushrooms lent additional complexity.  This is absolutely a wine for the cellar, and by that I mean a minimum of five years.  Hands off, you fool!  Talking to myself there, but to you, too:  This is marvelous wine that completely belies the notion that most of Sonoma has just gotten too hot to make lean, stylish, age-worthy Pinot.  I have little doubt that my score will seem low after 7 to 10 years, but knowing how few buyers can wait that long, I need to score conservatively.  But this is flat-out fantastic Pinot.