Dried cherry and cranberry tinged with ginger, white pepper, clove and resin make for a penetrating and pungent nose to the St. Innocent 2011 Pinot Noir Zenith Vineyard. The tartness of its red berries and tactile impingement of its spicy elements make for a similarly audacious palate presentation, which an emerging aura of holly berry distillate only encourages. The gripping, invigorating finish retains a welcome measure of refreshing primary juiciness; and unlike a good many other St. Innocent (or Zenith Estate) Pinots, this seems simply to slough-off its (ca. 30%) share of new oak. I suspect it will merit attention through at least 2020. 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