GCIB Holiday Wine Tasting

It was an extremely late 2018 harvest at Heintz Vineyard. The fruit was able to hang on the vines for maximum time, building up astonishing depth of aroma and flavor as we crept through early October. As usual for this wine, intricate aromas and flavors flicker and fade—some floral, some exotic, others vibrant and savory. All this intensity is balanced by fresh coastal acidity. With such complexity and concentration, it’s no wonder that Heintz has long been considered one of California’s greatest Chardonnay vineyards, the demand for these grapes extremely high. This was our 19th vintage with these vines and one of the finest.

Aromas are deep, broad and complex: lemongrass, spearmint, thyme and white flowers. With air, a hint of honeysuckle emerges alongside rich brioche and dried apricot notes. The palate is immediately layered and full, with a sense of deep extract and concentration that comes directly from the vines. Stone fruits, oily citrus and preserved lemon are balanced by fresh, satisfying vibrant acidity. Building texture leads to a long echo of flavor that sails on and on. 

The beauty of our Finn Pinot Noir has always been the complementing blend of soils, vine ages, plant materials and distinct wine styles that combine to produce its grand-scale complexity and aging potential. In its 17th vintage, this 2016 bottling will rank in the top three or four wines in quality and style, alongside such profound vintages as 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2014. That’s a pretty serious lineage.

The vines we farm for Finn are grown in a range of soils that comprise sand, loam and clay. The resulting wine displays a kaleidoscope of aromas and flavors: layered fruits, red to black; sweet to savory; spicy and floral; herbal and tart. Within this spectrum comes a level of balance, intensity and nuance that is hard to find or replicate on a large scale; we will never bottle more than sixteen to twenty barrels each vintage.

Our 2016 Finn Pinot Noir teems with intrigue and counterpoised elements, a collection of nuances and fine detail, equal parts volume and delicacy. Possessing a building depth and succulence, it remains fresh and lively, devoid of heaviness—unmistakably Finn, dynamic and ethereal. The flavors of wild berries, truffle and bergamot tea sail on and on, the expansive finish delicate and silky. A wine that can be enjoyed on release, it has tremendous potential to evolve and gain even greater complexity over the next decade. Drink between 2019 and 2026.

From the iron-rich soils of Greywacke Vineyard, our new vintage of Eddie’s Patch is one of our finest efforts from this special vintage. The wine comes from a two-acre steep east-facing hillside parcel of vines that ekes out an existence in meager, shallow soils composed mostly of rocks and gravel. In this regard, it’s a very different animal from our Estate Vineyard bottling, and the two wines complement one another beautifully. While the Estate Syrah is entirely pure fruit and succulence, this wine is firmer, more dramatic and elemental. A bit wild and hard to contain, it could be considered Syrah in its more feral state. 

Greywacke’s iron-rich soils confer an extremely ferrous character to the wine that we see every vintage (terroir!), a trait I describe as mineral/red vapor. This distinctly ferrous note interweaves with spicy dark fruits (tart and savory), mint and a soy-like meatiness. On the palate, the wine is immediately fruit-driven—a slight surprise given the savory nature of its aromatics—with a sense of tiny wild berries, intense, potent and spicy. The wine possesses prodigious structure and deep texture from ultra-low yields due to such unforgiving soils. While you can sample your allocation soon after release (frankly, this wine could outlive most of us), I think it will be best enjoyed between 2020 and 2030. Our finest Eddie’s Patch since the 2013 vintage, and one of our greatest efforts ever.