2019 Pinot Noir (Santa Cruz Mountains)

This is a stellar set of wines from Thomas Fogarty. The 2018 Pinots are some of the very finest wines I have tasted here. A drought year with some spikes at the end yielded rich, intense wines that beautifully express the personality of site. The 2019s, on the other hand, are softer wines that will drink well better in the early going. As always, the Pinots see a good deal of stems, about 25% for the appellation wine and 33-50% for the vineyard designates. Stems character is more evident in the 2019s as a whole because the wines have less overall stuffing, but are more integrated in the 2018s, another sign of a superior vintage. The Pinots are all bottled with about 14 months of oak, with the exception of the appellation wine, which is sometimes bottled before the following harvest.

For the Chardonnays, 2019 has a slight edge over the 2018s. A cooler growing season seems to have especially benefitted the Chardonnays, which show a bit more energy and delineation than the 2018s. Winemaker Nathan Kandler points out that the Chardonnay harvest (which is always after the Pinots here) is now nearly a month earlier than it was a decade ago. As a result, the Chardonnays are also bottled earlier than they used to be. The Chardonnays are all fermented in barrel, moved to tank the following August and then bottled in January, about 14 months after the harvest.

“We are definitely making wine differently than when I started because of how much climate has changed,” Kandler explained. “We see more marine influence in the spring, but warmer and drier summers. We have a harder time setting fruit. Late season heat spikes used to be an exception, now they are the rule,” he added. “Timing of the harvest is essential, as is having crews on hand, and that is always a challenge in this part of the world,” proprietor Tommy Fogarty elaborated.

Fogarty fans will want to snap up these wines. There will be no 2020 Pinots, while no decision has been made yet as to whether or not the 2020 Chardonnays will be released.