Drew Family Cellars Pinot Noir Joshua's Vineyard

Maybe it suffered from following the Hermit Ram but this came off as super blocky and jammy and not that good.

10 months after the prior: Again savory suggestions of saline and pine needles. Developing very nicely — highly enjoyable over three nights. Darn, our last. But for those who have more, we see this as further evolving nicely for a few years.

Seven months after the prior, and again it remains comparatively elegant, with savory suggestions of peat and maybe some pine needles. Highly enjoyable over three nights.

2.5 years after the prior: this continues to be rather elegant, showing savory dark fruit, a touch of earthy peat smoke, all backed up by lovely and lively acidity. Very enjoyable over three nights.

This comes across as an old world Pinot with restrained red fruit and shy on the nose. Some earthiness and a mineral component. Some cranberry and choke cherry with a tart initial delivery. It opened with some additional time but I believe this needs more time to lay down, integrate and fill out. It has lovely potential to evolve.

Light to medium ruby with some translucence at the edges. First impression upon opening: closed and light. With time, and over the course of three nights, it opened beautifully, revealing forest floor/pine, rose petals, earth, savory cherry and verve. This is the most elegant Drew that we can recall over the last four vintages. And to date it is our favorite bottling. At this very early stage, it strikes us as a (very rare) California Pinot Noir that might be …

Really good value