The Bethel Heights' 2011 Pinot Noir Southeast Block - from one of several 1979 Pommard blocks on their estate - has an exposure that, in collaboration with relatively deep and water retentive soil - you might think would prove a handicap in largely rainy, ripeness-challenged 2011. Instead, the first things I notice here are the mouthwatering sense of salinity allied to deeply savory, marrow- and bone-rich meat stock. These mingle with juicy, crunchy seed and piquantly pit-inflected elderberry and sour cherry on a firm, unapologetically but finely tannic palate, leading to a finish of near vibratory grip and invigoration, to which black pepper and crushed stone add emphasis and intrigue. This unusually forceful yet somehow elegant expression of 2011 energy also illustrates this vintage's paradoxical potential for metaphoric darkness allied to acid-driven brightness. It will, I strongly suspect, be worth following through 2022, and quite possibly beyond. "They weren't that different, at least in terms of the season" maintained Mimi Casteel and cousin Ben Casteel in amusing tandem when I asked them to differentiate 2011 and 2010, "just the latest harvest on record, and then the next latest on record! And we haven't felt that there is a qualitative difference either. But we were picking in the 12th-13th of October range, with 2010 (whereas) we didn't start picking until the 25th in 2011 and didn't finish until the 11th of November. Our goal was to get 12% natural alcohol and enough extract that the more tannic parts of our vineyard weren-t going to be just tannic." And many Pinots in this 2011 collection got into bottle at or little over 12%, with distinctively delightful results. The fruit was all destemmed and the extractive regimen lightened. After not getting the results they had hoped for in those few 2010 lots to which tartaric acid had been added (out of concern that the wines would fall flat after such high malic converted to lactic), the Casteels performed no acidulation in equally high-malic 2011. "The changing of our barrel regime to lighter toasting, but more turn-over (hence also newness) and different tonneliers has been gradual, but is something we've really worked on" explains Ben Casteel. "When Mimi and I took over in 2005 we didn't want to change anything dramatically because you have an established track record" to consider. A new property, Ingram Lane, has recently been planted to enhance the future volume here, which is still suffering a bit from the loss of Seven Springs after that venerable neighboring site became part of Evening Land. (For more about Bethel Heights consult my Issue 202 introduction.) Tel. (503) 581-2262