2018 Pinot Noir Two Barns Vineyard

As usual, there is a vast range of Pinot Noir bottlings from Domaine Serene in 2018. As has been the case for the last decade, the wines show a good measure more elegance and liveliness than the often massive wines made here in the 2000s and earlier. That is not to say that they wines are demure; they are, as usual, intensely flavored and well-concentrated, with plenty of new oak – anywhere from a third to 75% – though the impact is rarely to the extreme, at least by my estimation. These are young wines, raised in a good amount of new barrels, so, logically, that will show at this stage of their development. The intent here, after all, is to make wines that age, which they definitely will, and rest assured, the new-barrel impact will recede steadily over the years.