2019 Pinot Noir Mononi Vineyard

This is a solid set of wines from Arista, with one or two exceptions. I continue to think that some of the vineyard sites are either not optimal or too far from Arista's home base in the Russian River, to be monitored closely enough. Even so, the strides made here in recent years by brothers Ben and Mark McWilliams under the direction of winemaker Matt Courtney are notable. This year I noted a much more refined style in the Pinots, which used to be bigger. Whether that is a function of vintage or tweaking of approach, or both, remains to be seen. The one thing that I don't like at Arista is the use of very heavy bottles for the top wines, which strikes me as out of touch with the times.