2014 La Encantada Vineyard Pinot Noir - Sweetzer Cellars

Spiced strawberry, pine needle, dried orange peel. Juicy raspberry, cumin powder, cranberry compote. Bright lavender and fresh poinsettia, bay leaf and brown mushroom. A booming, ethereal, and expressive attack erupts with lavish expanse, oozing bing cherry, wild blackberry, and baked rhubarb in lifted and weightless perfume. Vivid florals and evergreen forest supply natural aromatic sweetness that balances brilliantly with notes of briny olive and earthy topsoil. Curry, cardamom, and clove compliment a dusting of exotic seasoning that integrates seamlessly with salted gingerbread and nostalgic holiday spices. Tremendously nuanced and layered throughout every facet of its approach expressing incredible complexity, flawless typicity, and spot-on sense of place. Full bodied yet quite fresh and lean filled out by medium tannin and elevated acidity. This 2014 La Encantada Vineyard Pinot Noir by Sweetzer Cellars is an unbelievably impressive small production single vineyard red from the Santa Rita Hills.

Sweetzer Cellars is small Santa Barbara County producer making wines that are big on character and complexity. This bottling, crafted using Pinot Noir sourced from the La Encantada Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills, might be the most exciting offering we have tried from Sweetzer thus far. Packed with succulent yet tangy fruit, seductive and nuanced earthiness, and remarkable tertiary depth this wine is thoroughly complete in almost every way. At 5 years of age it is currently firing on all cylinders and possesses sufficient energy and structure to continue to improve for perhaps another decade. While far from shy and certainly not to be confused with Burgundy this wine is textbook Santa Barbara County Pinot, and it is has been an absolutely pleasure to experience. Outstanding.