2018 Pinot Noir

There are so many compelling wines in this range from Mount Eden and sister estate Domaine Eden. The Wolff Vineyard Chardonnay, from a site in Edna Valley, is once again a ridiculous value. Not to be outdone, the Domaine Eden Chardonnay is not too far behind. At the upper end, the 2018 Mount Eden Chardonnay is fabulous, while the 2017 Reserve, which sees a second year of aging in tank, is so elegant. It’s a similar theme in the Pinot Noirs. The Domaine Eden bottling is more forward and fruity, while the Mount Eden wine has more whole cluster influence and greater structure. And then there are the Cabernets, which are reference points for the appellation.

Minimal intervention farming, with very little irrigation at Domaine Eden and basically none at Mount Eden, is standard. The wines are done with spontaneous ferments and are barely touched in aging. “Two thousand eighteen is a drought year bracketed by two wet years in 2017 and 2019,” Jeffrey Patterson told me at Mount Eden, echoing the thoughts of many of his colleagues. “Even so, I find that wines show drought character only after a few years of sustained dryness and heat, as was the case with the 2015s, for example,” he added. Ultimately, though, what comes through is the extraordinary pedigree of these wines.