95
points
MacPhail 2007 Wightman House Vineyard Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley)
-
$60
Delicious now, a rich Pinot Noir with lush flavors of black cherries, red currants, cola and smoky oak. It’s a big wine with sizable tannins and crisp, coastal acidity, but it’s very dry and silky, and shows great elegance. Should develop bottle complexity over the next six years.
— S.H.
(12/31/2009)
94
points
MacPhail 2007 Goodin Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast)
-
$65
Made with Dijon clones from a vineyard in a cool corner of Sebastopol, this rich young Pinot brims with fresh acidity. It has complex flavors of cherries, cola, pomegranates, rhubarb, sandalwood and pepper, wrapped into a silky texture. Just a delight, and should age over the next six years.
— S.H.
(9/1/2009)
94
points
MacPhail 2009 Raye's Hill Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley)
-
$49
A sweet, soft, harmonious Pinot Noir. Feels so gentle in the mouth, it hardly has any weight, yet it’s a very serious wine. The flavors are enormous, suggesting ripe wild cherries, raspberry liqueur and baking spices, finished with perfectly applied, smoky oak, and brightened with fine acidity. A wine of great charm, it should continue to develop in the bottle for…
— S.H.
(9/1/2011)
94
points
MacPhail 2005 Toulouse Vineyard Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley)
-
$40
I have not been impressed by this bottling in past vintages, but the ’05 establishes a new benchmark. Just exactly why is hard to say. Yields were exceptionally low in this long, cool vintage, and lots of new French oak frames dramatically rich, ripe flavors of mashed cherries and raspberries, sprinkled with cinnamon, a drop of crème de cassis, and a pinch of white…
— S.H.
(9/1/2007)
93
points
MacPhail 2009 Frattey Shams Vineyard Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley)
-
$49
Extraordinarily rich, this Pinot Noir dazzles with extracted cherries and raspberries, with exotic mulberry additions that have a spicy, feral, meaty quality. Top Anderson Valley vineyards often show this wild note, so welcome in an era when ripe fruit is easy to achieve. On a par with MacPhail’s great 2007 Frattey Shams bottling, and the good news for consumers is…
— S.H.
(3/1/2012)