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2018 Au Bon Climat, Knox Alexander, Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley, California, USA

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Full Bodied
  • Pinot Noir
Jeb Dunnuck
92/100
Matt Kettmann
94/100
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Product: 20181135668
2018 Au Bon Climat, Knox Alexander, Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley, California, USA

Description

Sweet strawberries and red cherries dominate the nose, mixed with a touch of vanilla and spice. The 2018 is beautifully light on its feet, with a high kick of tangerine sharpness. Gorgeous acidity brings freshness and layers of toasty minerality. The tannins are pert, fresh and delightful, easing away into a savoury-embedded finish. There is light in this wine; it feels almost crystalline and just dances with energy. A ripe cranberry character with a redcurrant purity dominates on the long finish, which lingers on notes of wet stone and cured meat.

Drink now to 2038.

Catriona Felstead MW, Senior Wine Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd (Sep 2021)

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2018
Alcohol % 13.5
Grape List Pinot Noir
Body Full Bodied
Property Au Bon Climat

Critics reviews

Jeb Dunnuck 92/100
The 2018 Pinot Noir Knox Alexander, which includes 35% stems, reveals a more medium ruby hue (I doubt that it's been filtered) as well as a complex, nuanced style in its spiced red and black fruits as well as notes of new leather, spice box, and loamy earth. Medium-bodied, nicely balanced, and textured, it's another unquestionably Burgundian-styled beauty from this team with lots to love. jeb_dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com (August 2022)
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (Aug 2022)
Matt Kettmann 94/100
This bottling, named for the vintner's son, is quite light in the glass, offering aromas of crisp pomegranate, cranberry, green peppercorn and eucalyptus. It's zesty on the palate with those green-herb and peppercorn notes that play against the tart pomegranate and blood-orange-rind flavors. This is built to last. Drink now through 2038. Matt Kettman, WineEnthusiast.com
Matt Kettmann, WineEnthusiast.com

About this wine

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or. Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.

Au Bon Climat

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