2018 Willow White

Don Burns has quickly taken his winery to the upper ranks of Paso Robles’ producers, and these elegant, complex 2018s represent his best set of releases yet. Burns has acquired much of his winemaking knowledge working with Justin Smith, as his assistant winemaker at Saxum, and while his wines definitely show that influence, I generally find that they show a marginally lighter touch than those he makes with Smith. It’s worth noting that he purchases fruit from Smith as well as from the G2 vineyard, which also sells fruit to Saxum. Burns raises his wines, which are all blends that vary vintage to vintage, in a variety of vessels, and whole clusters are almost always used to some degree, often significantly, which no doubt contributes to their assertive perfumes.