The 2016 Pinot Noir Kiser en Haut is pale to medium ruby-purple and has an exuberant nose of warm red and black cherries, raspberries and cranberries with touches of dusty soil, lavender and mossy bark. The medium-bodied palate reveals lovely floral sparks accenting the red fruits with a fine-grained frame and oodles of freshness, finishing on a mineral note. 250 cases produced.

The 2010 Pinot Noir Kiser En Haut is more compact and dense than the Kiser En Bas that follows in this tasting. Here the tannins are firm and a bit imposing. The 2010 will require a few years for the fruit to really open up. Today, the wine is compact, tight and closed in on itself. It will be interesting to see how the wine develops in the coming year and years. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2020. I have to say, it is a bit strange to visit Wells Guthrie’s beautiful Copain winery in Healdsburg, as none of the wines are made from fruit grown on the estate! Guthrie prefers to source fruit from cooler parts of Sonoma, most notably Anderson Valley and Yorkville Highlands. Today the Copain wines are mid-weight, gracious and delicate in style, a far cry from a few years back, when they were much more overt. In cold years like 2010 and 2011, some of the wines are a touch on the fragile side. Readers on a budget should be sure to check out the Tous Ensemble range, as those wines deliver tremendous quality for the money. All of 2011s I tasted from tank were scheduled to be bottled a few days after my visit. Tel. (707) 541-7474

The 2009 Pinot Noir Kiser En Haut is all rose petals, dark red cherries, spices and licorice. The wine boasts tremendous depth in a weightless style that is undeniably appealing. Layers of aromatics are woven throughout in this polished, utterly impeccable wine. There is an energy and vitality to the Kiser En Haut that is remarkable. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2019. This set of wines from Copain and proprietor Wells Guthrie was among the most exciting I tasted from Sonoma this year. Guthrie has decided to release his 2010 Pinots before his 2009s, as he thinks the 2010s will drink better earlier, owing to their mid-weight structures. Unfortunately, I was not able to taste the 2010 Pinots, as they had just been bottled at press time. The Pinots are made with fully de-stemmed fruit and are aged in French oak barrels, approximately 25% new. Guthrie uses 50-100% whole clusters for his Syrahs. These are some of the most refined, subtle wines being made in Sonoma today. Stylistically, the wines are a bit more restrained than they have been in the past, as the fruit is now being picked around 23 Brix as opposed to 24 or 24.5, as was the norm a few years back. Guthrie describes 2009 as a cool vintage with a late set but otherwise even ripening for both Pinot and Syrah, with no late rains during the final phase of ripening. Vintage 2010 was much more challenging. Rain and very cold weather were pretty much a constant the entire year. Frost, rain during flowering and a cold summer lowered yields dramatically. Achieving full ripeness was much more of a challenge in 2010 and some of the wines were lightly chaptalized. Tel. (707) 541-7474

With slightly more fruit and crushed rock, and moving more into the raspberry flavor spectrum is the 2007 Pinot Noir Kaiser En Haut. This again displays some striking minerality that seems to emerge from this Anderson Valley vineyard, but the result is a tightly wound, compact wine that doesn’t deliver all the flavors and depth one expects. (Not yet released) One of my favorite California wine producers, Wells Guthrie, like a champion truffle-hunting dog, seems to unearth top vineyards for his wines. The other 2006 Pinots I tasted, as well as the 2007s, all seem austere, rather attenuated in the finish, and essentially angular. While obviously less charming and fleshy in their youth, I doubt they will age any better since there is not a whole lot of flesh on them. Part of this can be explained by the vintage of 2006, but that wouldn’t explain the same stylistic orientation of the 2007s. Turning to the 2007s, I think these are overall superior wines because of the better vintage. The 2007 Syrahs range from excellent to outstanding, and this seems to be Wells Guthrie’s strongest suit, as it has been in previous vintages. Tel. (707) 541-7474; Fax (707) 541-7575

The 2006 Pinot Noir Kaiser En Haut is slightly more charming, but again in a tight, ungiving, unrelenting style. It seems to raise more reservations about overall balance than charm and succulence.. One of my favorite California wine producers, Wells Guthrie, like a champion truffle-hunting dog, seems to unearth top vineyards for his wines. The other 2006 Pinots I tasted, as well as the 2007s, all seem austere, rather attenuated in the finish, and essentially angular. While obviously less charming and fleshy in their youth, I doubt they will age any better since there is not a whole lot of flesh on them. Part of this can be explained by the vintage of 2006, but that wouldn’t explain the same stylistic orientation of the 2007s. Turning to the 2007s, I think these are overall superior wines because of the better vintage. The 2007 Syrahs range from excellent to outstanding, and this seems to be Wells Guthrie’s strongest suit, as it has been in previous vintages. Tel. (707) 541-7474; Fax (707) 541-7575