2016 Brewer-Clifton Pinot Noir Hapgood Vineyard
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The 2016 Pinot Noir Hapgood comes from a site just beside the Machado Vineyard in the middle of the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, and as with all these wines from Greg Brewer, it's not destemmed and is aged in neutral barrels. It's always a complex wine and the 2016 is no exception, giving up terrific light red fruits (white cherries, raspberries), Asian spices, salted peach, and exotic flower-like aromas and flavors. This medium to full-bodied beauty has the textbook salinity of the appellation, an expansive, layered texture, moderate tannins, and a great finish. It's just another sensational wine from this estate.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Pinot Noir Hapgood offers a good bit of immediacy and power, but it also comes across as a bit reticent next to the other wines in the range, with firm, unyielding tannins that need time to become a bit friendlier before the bluish fruit and spice character can fully emerge. It will be interesting to see how things develop here.
The 2016 Pinot Noir Hapgood was my one of my favorites from among these offerings from Brewer-Clifton, wafting from the glass with an incipiently complex bouquet of plums, spice, raspberry, currant and rich soil. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, with the most volume and dimension of all the winery's Pinot Noirs at this stage, with its structuring tannins more supple and velvety than those found in the 459 and its saline finish reflecting its whole cluster fermentation.