Category	Red Wine
Varietal	Pinot Noir
Region	California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills
Brand	Domaine-de-la-Côte
Alcohol/vol	13.1%

Cool yet ripe strawberries, together with crushed spices, such as cloves and cardamom. Then mushroom and bark. Full-bodied with a solid structure and layers of firm tannins. Great finish. But needs three to six years to soften.

The 2020 Pinot Noir La Cote is a wine of tremendous density and power. Red cherry/plum fruit, crushed rocks, herbs and rose petal fill out the layers, but La Cote mostly stands out for its huge core of fruit. Here, too, readers will have to be extremely patient. La Cote is a Pinot of real substance. In some vintages, it has been a bit on the excessively savory side, but Sashi Moorman and Rajat Parr nailed the balance in 2020.

Extreme cool-climate qualities show on the nose of this bottling, including asphalt, olive tapenade and truckloads of tumbleweed, with dark-cherry elements adding a fruit tone. Flavors of Pasilla chile in tomato broth show on the utterly unique palate, where cranberry sauce and cracked rainbow peppercorn add to the attention-grabbing complexity.

The 2021 Pinot Noir La Côte is an energetic wine with plenty of aging potential. In the last couple of years, production from this nine-acre vineyard was halved when the team realized wine quality was better from the top portion of the vineyard, where it is shaly and better protected. Fruit from the bottom half of the vineyard is now allotted to the Pinot Noir Estate. Medium ruby and aromatically layered, it offers scents of pomegranate, cranberries and blackberries with nuances of graphite, lavender and amaro. Medium-bodied, its concentrated fruits are supported by powdery tannins and bright bursts of acidity, and it finishes with detailed accents of bitters and botanicals.

Ripe and focused, with a core steeled for cellaring by a racy, chalky frame, which is nicely embedded throughout. Delivers light red tea, incense, sanguine and savory details that unfurl slowly through the finish. Long and precise. Best from 2024 through 2034. 428 cases made.