McIntyre Vineyards Winemaker Series Pinot Noir by Don Van Staaveran 2021

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of McIntyre Vineyards Winemaker Series Pinot Noir by Don Van Staaveran 2021.

McIntyre Vineyards Winemaker Series Pinot Noir by Don Van Staaveran 2021
14.4% alcohol, cork, Santa Lucia Highlands, California.

This was grown on a Pinot Noir vineyard that is now over 50 years old, which is remarkable in both New World terms (in general) and in Santa Lucia Highlands AVA terms in particular

It’s a powerful Pinot Noir offering woodsmoke, reductive notes, layers of macerated cherries, chicory and woodsy spice characters. The firm, spicy, smoky tannin has a genuine flex to it, and at all points this wine feels polished, not to mention impressive. I tasted this at dinner, which is an ideal/not ideal way to assess wine, particularly when there’s a number of wines on the table. My final words, in my notes, were “clarity of vision” which, in the cold light of day, don’t entirely make sense to me. The score I wrote was 92-93 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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