WINERY REFLECTIONS

Pretty red cherry, fresh pine needle, orange peel. Crunchy boysenberry, ocean fog, Santa Rosa plum. Tightly-wound yet deeply layered bursts of tart blueberry, cranberry, and strawberry lead a pure yet incredibly nervy display bounding with elegant floral tones of lavender, cherry blossom, and rose petal. Hints of undergrowth and oolong tea gently emerge to impart fresh natural and herbal charms balanced against a range of well-integrated spices including cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Intriguing impressions of diatomaceous earth expose a thread of clean coastal earthiness that climaxes in a breathtaking rush of saline minerality. Notably lifted and aromatic on the nose while remaining quite tense yet still weightless and elegant on the palate; exhibiting a delicate and finesse-driven presentation that is beautifully restrained and amazingly terroir expressive. Medium bodied with surprisingly grippy tannin fleshed out by bright acidity. This 2020 Radian Vineyard Pinot Noir by Dusty Nabor Wines is a complex and cellar-worthy red from Santa Barbara's Santa Rita Hills.

Located along the southwest edge of the famed Santa Rita Hills in the midst of the wind-swept foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains, the Radian Vineyard has quickly developed into one of Santa Barbara's most exciting places for winegrowing and is particularly well known for the world class Pinot Noir it produces. This bottling, crafted by Dusty Nabor Wines using Pinot Noir sourced from the Radian Vineyard, is an exceptional example of the strengths of this remarkable site. This effortlessly broods with a tense core of dark and red fruits that remain quite delicate and lifted despite their intensity, and it complicates them with pretty floral tones, interesting spices, subtle herbal notes, and textbook coastal minerality. This can be enjoyed today after a moderate decant yet is absolutely nowhere near its peak, and would be best consumed after moderate to long-term cellaring. Wow.