Walter Scott Clos des Oiseaux Pinot Noir 2016 (750ML)

92+ Points, Erin Brooks, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2016 Clos des Oiseaux Pinot Noir opens with a touch of reduction that gives way with aeration to savory/meaty notes with warm black cherries and berries, forest floor and wet leaves plus spicy notions. Medium-bodied, it fills the mouth with sweet fruit and plenty of perfumed earth, with a good frame of grainy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing long and earthy with crushed rock nuances. Decant this to allow it to show its full potential. 250 cases produced." 8/18

93 Points, Josh Raynolds, Vinous: "Shimmering red. Ripe red fruits, licorice, mocha and Asian spices on the highly perfumed nose, along with a bright mineral overtone that gains power as the wine stretches out. Lithe and precise on the palate, offering mineral-laced raspberry, floral pastille, cola and spicecake flavors that show sharp delineation and back-end lift. Exhibits a suave marriage of power and finesse and finishes with sneaky tannins and outstanding persistence. (20% whole clusters; aged for 15 months in French oak barrels, 40% of them new)" 05/19

93+ Points, John Gilman, View From the Cellar: "As I mentioned last year, the Clos des Oiseaux Vineyard has been leased by Ken Pahlow since the 2011 vintage, and he has been farming it by organic methods since 2014. The 2015 bottling was outstanding and the 2016 Clos des Oiseaux is also excellent, coming in at a relatively cool 13.1 percent alcohol in this ripe vintage and delivering a classy, youthful and quite complex bouquet of black cherries, beetroot, a touch of gamebird, dark soil tones, raw cocoa, a dollop of cedary oak and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and still quite tightly-knit, with an excellent core of fruit, fine transparency, ripe, fine-grained tannins, tangy acids and excellent length and grip. This is far more backward than the Sojourner Vineyard bottling and deserves some time to blossom in the cellar, but it is going to be absolutely outstanding when it is ready to drink. (Drink between 2023-2060)" 8/18 Issue #76