2021 Goldeneye Pinot Noir Gowan Creek Vineyard

From estate-grown fruit, the 2021 Pinot Noir Gowan Creek Vineyard opens with a lovely aromatic nose of rose and forest, delving on the palate into a sweet, generous, full-bodied, fruity expression of blueberry scone. The lengthy mid-palate is defined in an ongoing layering of lush baked blue and black fruit character, the oak well-integrated and bold. Enjoy best through 2031. Goldeneye set up shop in Anderson Valley in 1996, one of the first to do so in a big way. Founded by Dan and Margaret Duckhorn of Napa Valley’s Duckhorn Winery to focus on Pinot Noir, Goldeneye’s genesis was actually six years later, in 1990, when the first Pinot was made from Russian River Valley grapes. Soon after, the Duckhorns bought an 80-acre ranch in Anderson Valley with a winery and vineyard to base the new brand, calling its first estate Confluence Vineyard, a nod to its location at the headwaters of the Navarro River. By 2000, it added an additional 70-acre vineyard called Gowan Creek and released its first estate Pinot from the 1997 vintage. The Narrows Vineyard came on line in 2003. Kristen McMahan has been with the winery since 2019 and has been head winemaker since 2021.