Podere Santa Felicita Pinot Nero Cuna Brendino Toscana IGT

The purity of the cherry fruit is truly remarkable. It's almost as if there's literal cherry juice in the wine. Acidity is very good and there's a nice earthiness with hints of forest floor and campfire smoke. Feels a little rougher around the edges this time for some reason, so it isn't quite the stunner it was last time, but this is still a wonderful Pinot.

You could have put this wine in a lineup of California Pinots, possibly from Monterrey or Sonoma Coast, and I wouldn't have been able to mark it as an outlier -- except perhaps for simply being exceptional. It has a remarkably similar fruit profile and spice/earth stance. If anything, it's brighter, more vivacious, and higher-toned. Very refined tannins, great depth and acidity, and wonderful balance. Superb.