Bright cherry, holiday spice, cranberry concentrate. Candied rhubarb, fragrant potpourri, slightly under ripe blueberry. Powdered cinnamon and nutmeg, damp forest floor and wet leaves. Spiced strawberry highlights an expansive palate loaded with dried flowers, vanilla bean, and sawdust. Sauteed mushroom, tobacco leaf, and holly emerge with time drawing attention away from warm cola tinged soil. Powerful yet delightfully restrained. This 2015 Estate Pinot Noir by Ketcham Estate Winery is a wonderful and surprisingly Burgundian Pinot from the Russian River Valley.

The Russian River Valley of Sonoma County California is known for producing some of the most ripe, lush, and opulent Pinot Noir in the world. Stylistically these wines tend to favor juicy dense fruit over the subtle nuance this variety is famous for in its homeland of Burgundy France. Despite the stereotype there are still a number of producers in the RRV who pursue a more classic old world approach. This bottling, crafted by the boutique Ketcham Estate Winery, is a great example of this paradigm. It absolutely contains some of the beautiful ripeness that can be expected of Pinot Noir from this region, yet it maintains its focus on spice-laden forest-filled earthiness. Textured tannin and a backbone of acidity scream seriousness without coming off as overwhelming. A slightly gamey note peeks through currently and should evolve into prominence with more bottle age. This is some fantastically well balanced wine and we enjoyed it thoroughly.