The nose is just wonderfully complex and big with lots of "cold" red fruit with hints of chocolate and some redcurrant.
The palate is firm, solid, fullbodied, smooth with firm tannins. Lots of red fruit. Very direct in style and a great acidity to go with it.
It's too early to drink now and should be kept for 3-4 years for maximum potential.
Some other comments about this wine:
“Readers who can find the Occidental Pinots should not hesitate to grab
them, as they are truly magnificent.” Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media
Running a
successful winery for over 30 years with a long wait list just to get on to
their mailing list to get an allocation of wine just wasn’t enough of a
challenge for Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler. Kistler Vineyards built their
reputation on Chardonnay, but many praise their smaller production Pinot
Noirs. So these two passionate wine producers have taken their years of
experience and custom built a winery and wine program to their exact
specification and have applied all their expertise to Pinot Noir. Out
of this passion has come a new pinot noir estate called
"Occidental." Occidental is dedicated exclusively to the
production of world class pinot noir from the Sonoma Coast. The
state-of-the-art facility is just east of the town of Bodega on a ridge top
next to the Bodega Headlands Vineyard overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The terroir
at this estate appears to have enabled Steve Kistler to produce Pinot Noir that
is rich with flavour, but not overly extracted or tannic. Robert Parker
views the Occidental vineyard sites and terroir as very special indeed – “A
new project owned and managed by Steve Kistler, Occidental has 18 acres of
Pinot Noir planted primarily with the Calera clone on low yielding rootstock
Riparia Gloire. The vineyard, situated in the Petaluma Gap, is extremely windy
and cold… While a lot of noise is made about getting lower sugars in
California, and that alcohols have gotten too high, this particular site
appears to provide full phenolic ripeness at a much lower sugar level.
Moreover, if the crop yields are kept low, excellent intensity and richness are
also present. So perhaps in selected microclimates, California is capable of
making very concentrated, age-worthy wines with alcohols in the 12.5-13.5%
range. Although those terroirs and sites are few and far between, this would
appear to be one of them.”
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