The 2009 Pinot Noir Red Hills Estate spent 15 months in barrel. Notes of vanilla, raspberry, and chocolate lead to a wine with greater density and richness than the preceding wines. Exceptionally substantial and lengthy for the vintage, it, too, should drink well through 2021 if not longer. Veteran winemaker Anna Matzinger appears to have maximized what nature provided in the warm 2009 vintage. She describes it as “a friendly vintage with lots of sunshine in the glass”. www.archerysummit.com

A terrific mouthfeel highlights this mix of berry and cherry fruits, toast and cinnamon. Tart and focused, it was aged in roughly half new French oak for the first 10 months, then transferred to neutral barrels for another five months. Fine-grained tannins give it an elegant finish.——P.G.(3/1/2012)—— 93