2021 Bodega Headlands Cuvee Elizabeth Pinot Noir
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Tasting notes
The 2021 Pinot Noir Bodega Headlands Vineyard Cuvée Elizabeth is powerfully structured and will be long lived in the cellar. Medium ruby-purple in color, the nose is bursting with pomegranate, rhubarb and blueberry, and as it opens in the glass, it reveals nuances of hibiscus, pipe tobacco and Earl Grey tea. On the palate, its iron-laced red fruit is structured by chiseled tannins and linear acidity, and it has a very long finish laced with botanical tones. It offers the same purity and expression as the 2019 but gives the sense that, once it closes down in bottle, it will require several years in the cellar to come back around.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
A jeweled magenta ruby color, the 2021 Pinot Noir Bodega Headlands Vineyard is from a coastally exposed site planted with vine cuttings from two Grand Crus in Vosne Romanée and sheltered to the north by redwoods. In the glass, the wine is highly expressive on opening, boasting a rich and refined perfume of violets, raspberry liqueur, pine, and pristine dark spices. Medium-bodied and elegant, it’s one of the richer wines in the range from this noble vintage and offers a ripe feel through the palate, with polished tannins and a hint of underlying mineral richness through its long finish. It’s a fabulous wine that will benefit from being stored properly for another year or more. Drink 2025-2040. The estate of Steve Kistler and his family in the Bodega Headlands, Occidental is exclusively devoted to producing coastally influenced Pinot Noir, and they are members of the West Sonoma Coast Vintners Association. Kistler was initially drawn to the area after tasting a bottling of Summa Vineyard that expressed a vivid and more cool climate style. Although Occidental was officially founded in 2011, Steve has been planting vineyards and purchasing property in the area since the 1990s and has retained his original cellar team for the past 30 years. His daughter, Catherine Kistler, has been the assistant winemaker since 2017. Each of the wines tasted for this report are their vineyard-designated selections, which are held back an initial year prior to release. I was highly anticipating this tasting, as the quality of the 2021 Freestone-Occidental tasted last year far exceeded my expectations, and this year’s visit did not disappoint. I would be thrilled to have any of these wines in my cellar.
The 2021 Pinot Noir Bodega Headlands Vineyard Cuvée Elizabeth is bright, aromatic and effusive right out of the gate. Rose petal, lavender, red/purplish fruit and spice are beautifully articulated. Medium bodied and gracious, the 2021 is all precision—all class. Bright saline notes resonate on the vibrant, persistent finish. I especially admire its understated personality. This site, planted in 2001 with suitcase clones on 101-14 rootstock and picked early for vibrancy, yields a tense, aromatic, red-toned Pinot endowed with tons of class. (AG)
Deep ruby color. A perfumed, elegant and wafting nose hints at the coolness of the vineyard yet the spicy black cherry and violet-scented aromas are fully ripe. There is excellent density to the beautifully textured medium-bodied flavors that possess focused power on the impressively long, balanced and youthfully austere finale. This beauty is quite firmly structured though the abundant dry extract should permit it to age gracefully over the next decade and perhaps even a bit longer. In a word, excellent.
About the producer
Steve Kistler is a man who needs little introduction. He founded, and – for almost 40 years – made the wines at, Kistler. Since leaving his eponymous estate in 2017, Kistler has been focused exclusively on Occidental, his new, family winery on the outer edges of the Sonoma Coast.