Occidental Occidental Station Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023

From a vineyard fifteen minutes further inland, the 2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard comes from the only site Steve Kistler planted in 1998. Notes of kirschy cherry cordial, fresh lavender, wildflowers, and fresh sage all emerge, and the wine is medium-bodied, floating on the palate with exceptional detail, elegant saltiness, refinement, and a “wow” factor throughout. It benefited from the long, cool growing season. Drink over the coming decades. Drink 2026-2046.

The 2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Station Vineyard is complex, refined and singular within the Occidental portfolio this vintage. Medium ruby-purple in color, it has arresting scents of strawberry, raspberry, blood orange, rose petals, red licorice and mushroom—each return to the glass offers a new facet of aromatic nuance, and I simply can’t put down the glass. The medium-bodied palate offers a weightless structure yet is brimming with expressive flavors that range from vivid fruit to bitters and earth. It has a luxurious and silky texture, vibrant acidity that structures its intense flavors and an epically long finish.

The 2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Station is sourced from a site that is further inland than the Occidental estate. It offers a captivating mix of intense dark fruit and equally imposing tannins. The Occidental Station is often the most immediate of the wines in this range, but not in 2023. Readers will have to be patient here, as the dense 2023 is currently defined by its raw, unbridled energy.