2009 Les Voisins Pinot Noir

The 2009 Pinot Noir Les Voisins opens with a gorgeous, enticing bouquet redolent of sweet red berries, flowers and spices. It shows lovely fleshiness in a mid-weight, radiant style best suited for drinking over the next few years. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019. 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

Deep red. Intriguing aromas of red and dark berries, cherry pit, incense and cinnamon. Shows good heft but comes across as quite fresh, offering an array of palate-staining berry and bitter cherry flavors and a sexy candied rose quality. Impressively energetic pinot with excellent finishing cut, grip and sappy persistence. This benefits a lot from air.