2021 Pinot Noir Summa Old Vines

A more youthful ruby with a pink tinge, the 2021 Pinot Noir Summa Old Vine is elegant and refined, with continuous layers of red flowers, anise, spices, pink peppercorn, and wild berries. Medium to full-bodied, it’s a singular wine, with concentrated red berries of grenadine, and it’s mineral in texture, with incredible purity. Outstanding and long, it may have a California stamp, but this is a wine with a lot of mineral backbone that harkens to the appeal of great Burgundy. It’s everything I want in California Pinot Noir and shows off this winery to a T. Drink 2024-2044. Owned by Thomas Rivers Brown and Genevieve Marie Welsh and based in Calistoga, Rivers Marie specializes in single varietal, single vineyard expressions of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. One of Sonoma's most prolific winemakers and consultants, Thomas Rivers Brown grew up in South Carolina and later went on to work at Turley before carving his own path forward. I met with Thomas and Will Segui, the assistant winemaker, at the Calistoga winery this May to taste the wines for this report. Having been hit incredibly hard in 2020, their 2021s are showing even better than I could have anticipated from last year’s barrel samples. These are some of the best wines I have ever tasted from Rivers Marie, with exceptional balance and finesse.