2013 The Hilt Pinot Noir Old Guard
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Tasting notes
The 2013 Pinot Noir Old Guard has really closed up since I tasted it last year. Cool and bracing in style, the 2013 offers a compelling mélange of deeply spiced, floral notes to complement the dark Sanford & Benedict fruit, all with the support of firm tannins that need time to soften. A vivid, sculpted wine, the 2013 is a thrill to taste today, but it needs time to show at its very best. This is another impressive showing. The 2013 was fermented with 25% whole clusters and saw just 10% new oak.
Critic scores
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
A step up over the Vanguard in 2013, the 2013 Pinot Noir Old Guard, which saw just 10% new French oak, is more structured and serious than the Vanguard and offers up an expansive, balanced, medium-bodied and elegant profile. Exhibiting lots of wild strawberry, raspberry, rose petal and crushed rock like minerality, it needs 2-3 years of cellaring but will have 15 years of more of ultimate longevity.
The Hilt's 2013 Pinot Noir The Old Guard is a stunner. Lavender, sage, violets, plums and black cherries are some of the notes that lift from the glass in a chiseled, nuanced Pinot. The 2013 is all about energy, delineation and pure class. What a gorgeous wine the 2013 is shaping up to be. In 2013, the Vanguard is 100% Sanford & Benedict fruit, mostly Mount Eden clone, with a dollop of Gamay clone.
About the producer
The Hilt is the Santa Rita Hills project owned by sports and property mogul billionaire Stan Kroenke, who also owns Screaming Eagle in Napa Valley and the Jonata estate in the California’s Ballard Canyon AVA.