Brewer-Clifton, Acin Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills

This is a pretty big wine at 10 years! It all starts great. Great color, great nose, nice balanced attack, complex mid palate, but... finishes bitter and unpleasant. Second night it was more settled, which salvaged the rating a few points. Suggesting this could use a couple years to settle down from this phase. Struggled to reach 89.

Nice, long finish.

Lite and full of fruit.

The wine looks ruby colored. The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like strawberry jam, raisin, cherry, cranberry, mushroom and honeysuckle. It tastes like cranberry, raisin, cherry, mineral and stoniness. The body is light/medium. The wine has angular texture. The wine finishes long. The wine has high acidity.

This bottle reminds me that we live in a world too full of hyperbole, so that when you actually encounter the real deal, it may be hard to trust your senses. I'm simply going to leave you with this thought: this particular bottle of 2014 Hapgood was perfection, the quintessential Central Coast Pinot. You may have had a similar experience with another bottle some other time, one that blew your mind and expanded your sense of what XYZ wine should …

Four of us consumed dinner out. All enjoyed though two felt it was better with food. Balanced with a long lingering finish that was more pronounced during first few tastings.