2010 Pinot Noir Comptche Ridge

This is another set of gorgeous wines from Anthill Farms. Proprietor Anthony Filiberti comments that 2010 was a challenging growing season. A cold, wet spring resulted in an irregular flowering, which lowered yields and left the plants with grapes and clusters in varying stages of development. The only way to achieve full ripeness was to sacrifice the fruit that lagged in maturity, which reduced yields even further. These sacrifices paid off, however, and as a result, Anthill Farms produced a fabulous set of wines. Filiberti typically uses 40-50% stems and prefers low amounts of new oak. These are some of the most transparent, graceful Pinots being made in California today. Pricing remains quite fair within the context of top-echelon California Pinot.

Anthony Filiberti told me that the cool conditions of 2010 "were pretty ideal for the type of pinot that we look for: lower Brix levels but full ripeness, low pH and good acidity." There's a new straight Sonoma Coast pinot this year, which Filiberti, Web Marquez and David Low hope will ease at least a bit of the demand pressure that has built up for these limited-production (under 1,500 cases, total) wines in recent years. Despite the fact that 2010 was a vintage geared toward producing more elegant wines than usual, I found this years set of wines here to show very good depth and flavor intensity, with the winery's usual light touch wholly in evidence.