2014 Rarissime Pinot Noir

Our Rare ONE-BARREL Release

 TRIPTYCH OF MONOCLONE® PINOT NOIRS

From the Stellar 2014 Vintage

 Single Vineyard, Single Clone, ONE barrel…Soliste

Claude and I sat together the other day to taste three of our 2014 Single Barrel MonoClone Pinot Noirs and select one to release. As our story goes, the name Soliste comes from the special single barrel the Burgundian vigneron reserves for friends and family. Our single barrel wines represent the promise and journey that is Soliste. We wanted to select an outstanding single barrel wine from an exceptional vintage to celebrate the rapidly approaching 2019 harvest – our 15th Vendange – with you. 

Each of these three wines epitomized why we love Pinot Noir. Of all the cépages, it is the most complex, exotic, cerebral, and enigmatic. And at times, perhaps showing its French roots, can be very frustrating and challenging. This is why we are both infatuated with and passionate about Pinot Noir, and why we care so deeply about our mission to craft the very best wines year after year. Selecting just one took much debate – and more than a glass or two. Suddenly, Claude announced, “These are so incroyable, instead of waiting and releasing them one at a time, let's showcase them together, and at once!” Sometimes the best decision is no decision at all. 

I’ll turn it over to Claude for his tasting notes:

This stellar vintage captures all the Alchemy that becomes Great Pinot Noir. This is a vintage for the purist. 2014 has gifted us precision, depth, pure aromatics and length to craft and select ONE barrel of three distinctive and singular Pinots from specific sites, terroir and MonoClone. Each are aged for 23 months in a single barrel. The rewards are Pinot Noir’s intoxicating nose, powerful yet refined with layers of pure fruit density, spice, sous-bois, truffles, amazing length, and complex finish.  

These three One Barrel MonoClone wines are so uniquely different that we simply could not resist but to do ONE release for you to experience their individual character – Vive la différence! 

2014 RARISSIME MonoClone Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast - Vosne-Romanée Ouest

Beautiful ruby clarity in the glass with deep luminosity highlights. The nose is musty, with focused aromas of bitter caramelized red Montmorency cherries, Vanilla bean, violets, Kirsch, and refined scents of sous-bois (forest floor). As the wine evolves in the glass or decanter, the aromatics become more dense and voluptuous with red cherry and dry raspberry compote, superbly elegant and floral, layered with anise, cedar, and black tea must. The palate delivers a paradox of powerful fruit concentration and silky texture with layers of red tart cherries, raspberries, plums and exotic spice, and black tea. This is a gorgeous expansive wine, reflecting the class and pedigree of the vineyard, with bitter caramel red cherry compote and spiced plums, spiked with black pepper, cocoa nibs, vanilla fat and sandalwood. The mid-palate is unctuous at first then accentuated with musty sous-bois, and dried maple leaves, with a good tannin grip from the 50% whole cluster press. The tart fruits and tannin accentuate the vibrant acidity, which lift the wine into a peak finish. Positively refined in texture and fruit purity, but palpably dense in tannic concentration, the finish has verve and expanse.