EnRoute Winery Les Pommiers Pinot Noir 2021

Pinot Noir from Russian River, Sonoma County, California

$58

This extraordinary vintage of Les Pommiers Pinot Noir offers balance, concentration, and harmony.

Delicate violet and ripe strawberry aromatics open onto a full, silky palate framed by seamless tannins and vibrant acidity.

Notes of confectionary spice and toasted oak accents lead into a finish that is lovely and lifted.

Blend: 100% Pinot Noir

DuMOL Wester Reach Pinot Noir 2020

Pinot Noir from Russian River, Sonoma County, California

$75

The aromas are full of vitality: bright, intense, and pure: red and black cherry, and fresh raspberry, with tangy orange zest lift.

There’s a sappy, freshly picked character to the wine’s fruit center – wild berries, spiced plum, and under-brushy sweetness.

The wine deepens and expands across the palate as its layers unfold then changes course becoming sleek and mineral with a fine line of focused acidity and gravelly tannin.

There’s a lovely echo of deep fruit on the finish.

This is a wine that you can enjoy on release, but it also offers the potential for a decade of positive aging in bottle.

The 2020 Pinot Noir Wester Reach is one of Dumol’s larger cuvées, and production was normal despite the challenges of the vintage (3,750 cases).

It has alluring purity on the nose, with scents of cranberries, rhubarb, tobacco leaves, orange peel and aniseed.

The medium-bodied palate is concentrated and powerful without losing detail, framed by powdery tannins and refreshing acidity.

It offers an array of spice and floral accents on the finish.

Kistler Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2020

Pinot Noir from Russian River, Sonoma County, California

$75

Aromas of pepper and floral notes lead to a rich, medium-bodied palate of red and black fruits.

This wine comes from a cooler Russian River site and offers a complex bouquet of red currants, smoked earth, ground pepper, and exotic floral and rose hip notes.

Rich, medium-bodied, and seamless on the palate, its incredibly classy as well as perfectly balanced.

The Best Pinot for Thanksgiving – Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2020

Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast, Sonoma County, California

$109

Bursting with fresh-picked blueberries, blackberries, baking spices, and lifted vanilla aromatics.

An iconic palate with dark fruit flavors underscored by elongated velvety tannins.

Uplifted aromatics.

Compelling dark fruit notes of blueberry, blackberry, and boysenberry are coupled with a hint of currant and a seamless touch of vanilla.

Vibrant with facets of dark fruit, wildflowers, and earthy layers that add sophistication and create intensity with refined tannins.

Dried strawberry and wet earth with some ash and bark character.

Medium to fully body.

Cloves and other spices.

A finish with a wealth of energy, drive, and power.

The Best Pinot for Thanksgiving -Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyards Pinot Noir 2019

Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast, Sonoma County, California

$70

The 2019 Pinot Noir opens with intensely floral aromatics of red fruit, dried savory herbs and violets.

A viscous, layered wine with balanced acid and tannin structure, jammy boysenberry, baking spice, and sour cherry notes linger to a complex finish.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Freestone Vineyards takes time to open, metamorphosing from iron and woodsmoke to raspberries, dried flowers, dark spices and aniseed.

The medium-bodied palate is silky and seamlessly fresh, loaded with perfectly ripe, earth-laced fruits whose flavors linger for a very long time in the mouth.

This has the fruit intensity and structure to age very well in bottle.

The Best Pinot for Thanksgiving – Paul Hobbs Goldrock Estate Pinot Noir 2019

Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast, Sonoma County, California

$85

In the far northwest corner of the Sonoma Coast appellation, near the town of Annapolis, the vineyard sits just five miles from the Pacific Ocean.

It provides a poignant setting for producing pinot noir with elegance, great precision, and intensity.

Another brilliant wine.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Goldrock Estate (all from the Sonoma Coast) reveals a deeper ruby/purple color to go with a captivating bouquet of black raspberries, redcurrants, scorched earth, graphite.

A beautiful sense of crushed rock-like minerality.

Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it’s flawlessly balanced and has a great mid-palate, building, ripe, polished tannins, and a juicy sense of acidity that keeps you salivating on the finish.

This is another riveting 2019 Pinot Noir from Paul Hobbs that can be enjoyed any time over the coming decade.

The Best Pinot for Thanksgiving – Rippon Vineyard Mature Vine Pinot Noir 2019

Pinot Noir from Central Otago, New Zealand

$65

The farm voice of a distinct parcel of land: Rippon.

On the western board of Roy’s Bay, Lake Wanaka, Rippon’s north-facing escarpment forms the meeting point of terminal moraines and coarse gravels, all based in schist, on which some of the region’s earliest vines were planted.

Rippon is a Wine issued from all of the fully developed Pinot Noir vines growing in this land.

Firm and tight licorice, graphite, slate and light dried strawberry.

Goes to iron. Flowers. Medium body.

Creamy and fine tannins with a rather dusty finish.

Fresh acidity and long and linear finish.

Structured.

From biodynamically grown grapes.

The Best Pinot for Thanksgiving – Soter Vineyards Mineral Springs Ranch Pinot Noir 2019

Pinot Noir from Yamhill-Carlton District, Willamette Valley, Oregon

$65

A vibrant red-fruited Pinot Noir with classic berry flavors laced with a mouth watering kiss of sea salt and cedar.

Ripe, juicy tannins round out a lengthy finish and make for an altogether exquisite experience.

Extremely aromatic and perfumed with floral, strawberry and hibiscus-water character.

Lavender, too. Full-bodied with toned tannins that are tight and focused.

Polished and lightly austere, in a serious and polished way.

Pulls you in with an energetic finish.

Drinkable now, but even better in three or four years.

The Best Pinot for Thanksgiving – Hyde Estate Winery Pinot Noir 2018

Pinot Noir from Carneros, California

$75

Succulent, elegant, and aromatic, revealing high tones of concentrated red fruit, cherry, plums, blackberry, black pepper, and a hint of toasty oak elements.

Delicate, firm, and persistent with layers of dark fruit and a core of acidity that glides throughout the finish.

This winsome edition shows off the vineyard’s way with Pinot, and what a fine wine it is.

From its outgoing, yet still youthfully vibrant, fruit-driven aromas of ripe, slightly tart red cherries to its silky feel on the palate, it hits all the right notes.

It is admittedly a little rough on the finish at present, but it has so much aging potential.