Nicolas Jay Pinot Noir 2016 (750ML)

90 Points, Erin Brooks, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "The 2016 Pinot Noir is pale to medium ruby-purple in color with a nose of warm red and black cherries and cranberry plus touches of crushed blueberries, cinnamon stick, charcuterie and underbrush. Light to medium-bodied, it has good concentration of warm red and black fruits in the mouth with earthy and spicy layers, soft, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing long." 8/18

93 Points, James Suckling: "Really lovely cherries and brambly raspberries, graphite and red flowers on the nose, leading to a rich and dark, deep, plush and spicy palate that has a very pure core of satiny, silky fruit flavor. Drink now." 11/18

94 Points, Wine Spectator: "Precise, deeply structured yet graceful, with expressive black cherry, river stone and black tea accents that build richness toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2024." 12/18

92+ Points, John Gilman, View from the Cellar: "The 2016 Pinot Noir "Willamette Valley" from Nicolas-Jay is a lovely young wine, offering up impressive sappiness and precision in its bouquet of red and black cherries, a bit of beetroot, a fine base of soil, woodsmoke, hints of mustard seed and thyme and a very well-done framing of spicy new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and very nicely balanced, with a sappy core, fine transparency, ripe, seamless tannins and a long, tangy and nascently complex finish. This is so well-balanced that it is quite easy to drink in its youth, but the wine has plenty waiting in the wings and I would recommend letting it build in complexity with some bottle age. Fine, fine juice. 2021-2055" 8/18