2017 Occidental Pinot Noir SWK Vineyard
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Tasting notes
The 2017 Pinot Noir SWK Vineyard is an incredible wine with pure, crystalline expression and dynamic energy. Its aromas are deep, broody and layered, with cranberry sauce and blackberries accented by blood orange, woodsmoke and tea leaves. The palate is energetic and incredibly light on its feet, bursting with bright fruits tinged with bitters and citrus. It has a firm, grainy frame, lip-smacking freshness and a long, ethereal finish.
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Robert Parker
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2017 Pinot Noir SWK Vineyard is beautiful stuff, offering a complex, ethereal style as well as a gorgeous nose of kirsch and black raspberry-like fruit along with complex sappy flowers, spice box, salty, seaside-like minerality, and forest floor. This ruby/purple-hued 2017 has medium-bodied richness, terrific overall balance, an incredible floral quality, and a great finish. It needs air if drinking any time over the coming year or two, and it will be at its best from 2022-2030. All these Pinot Noirs from Steve Kistler showed beautifully, with the slightly more focused, linear style of the vintage. These are classy, balanced, elegant wines that will benefit from bottle age.
The 2017 Pinot Noir SWK Vineyard is rich, heady and bursting at the seams with personality. Black cherry, menthol, licorice, plum, espresso, lavender and savory herbs infuse the 2017 with striking layers of complexity and sheer character. Poor soils give naturally low yields and a wine with serious concentration as well as power. Statuesque and towering, the 2017 is a drop-dead gorgeous beauty, but it needs time to be at its best.
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.