2016 Pinot Noir Katherine Lindsay Estate

The crème of the crop is the 2016 Pinot Noir Katherine Lindsay Estate, a truly extraordinary Pinot Noir. From a site in the Russian River, it offers a huge perfume of ripe cherries and strawberry fruits, spices, forest floor, and exotic flowers. Deep, incredibly fine and elegant, with silky tannin, it’s much more about purity and finesse than overt power and richness. Don’t miss it! These latest releases from Paul Hobbs are pretty much sensational across the board and Hobbs’ finds a rare mix of purity and elegance matched to richness and concentration that hits all my sweet spots. Hobbs commented that 2016 was a perfect vintage where everything came together easily, and the resulting wines have a terrific sense of elegance, purity an balance that make them already irresistible, yet will also allow them to age gracefully. In addition, the lineup is easy to understand; Hobbs makes an appellation blend Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and two single vineyards of each variety.

Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2016 Pinot Noir Katherine Lindsay Estate is a little closed with notions of scorched earth, black soil, pepper and cumin over a core of redcurrants, black cherries and warm plums. Full-bodied, firm and with a grainy texture, this is a more structured Pinot, possessing many earth and spice layers and great length. 749 cases were made.

The 2016 Pinot Noir Katherine Lindsay Estate is bold and juicy, but also has quite a bit of supporting structure to balance things out. I suspect the 2016 is going to need quite a bit of time to be at its very best. Even so, the purity of the fruit and overall intensity here are both striking. Inky red/purplish fruit, crushed rocks, lavender and sage build into the powerful, explosive finish.