Vlossak remarked that it was showing better when we tasted it than it had previously. In my review of an Oeil de Perdrix bottling from this vintage and site, I inadvertently conveyed the impression that there would be no St. Innocent 2011 Pinot Noir Momtazi Vineyard. In fact, the high-elevation extremities of this vineyard to which Vlossak has rights – he calls them “brutally wind-blown (with) shit for soil” –struggled to ripen in such a cool vintage, but it was only two of five blocks on which he gave up hope of harvesting red wine. That still left fruit enough for 729 cases. A highly vintage-typical display of tart red currant and sour cherry tinged with fresh ginger, turmeric and sassafras, its aromatic evocation of sea breeze leading to mouthwatering salinity and myriad mineral nuances on an infectiously juicy, pungently spicy, and almost glaringly bright palate, renders the experience here unforgettably bracing. Suggestions of bloody roasted red meats add to the striking savor of a finely-tannic, grippingly and resonantly persistent Pinot, almost sure to engender excitement through at least 2020. Given the strikingly consistent success of the three vintages I’ve tasted of this wine, I can’t fathom why Vlossak prices it as he does, but that certainly qualifies it as an amazing value. This will not, however – as I trust my tasting note will have made clear – be everybody’s cup of Pinot. Founder-winemaker Mark Vlossak – for much more about whom, and about St. Innocent, consult my issue 202 report – compares 2011 with the low-alcohol, high-acid Pinots he bottled in 1999, but not by way of dwelling on similarities; on the contrary. “I basically told people not to drink them,” he says of his 1999s, “and I’m still not drinking them. Every time I open ‘em I just think they’re way too young. Some may just be starting to come ‘round. But 2011 is completely different. Back then a lot of the vineyard was dying of phylloxera. We still had wide spacing. Now we have younger vines but with much denser spacing and more leaves to do the job.” Vlossak notes that “the highest alcohol I got in 2011was 13%, and I didn’t chaptalize anything that came in over 12.5%. The largest sugar buy I had ever made until now was 50 pounds, which means that basically I’d never really chaptalized anything. And I bought around 1,700 pounds of sugar in 2011!” Fermentative extraction and pressing were both gentler than usual – and “usual’ here, Vlossak has repeatedly sought to assure me, signifies an already light touch. I found two Vlossak’s whites tasted ahead of his latest Pinot Noirs surprisingly glassy in texture and tart, especially considering the noticeable degree of alcoholic ripeness achieved in the 2012 Pinot Blanc. Tel. (503) 932 2129