Roar Rosella's Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022

From a cooler site in the middle of the Santa Cruz Mountain appellation, the 2022 Pinot Noir Rosella's Vineyard offers more mulberry and wild strawberry fruit as well as a beautiful core of sappy flowers, violets, and underbrush. I love its overall purity and precision, and it's medium-bodied, has ripe, polished tannins, integrated acidity, and a great finish. It's up with the creme de la creme of the appellation, and it's going to have at least 10-12 years of prime drinking. It benefits from air if drinking any time soon.

A vivid array of ripe red fruit aromas, from black to sour cherry and pomegranate, are complemented by lively pinches of white pepper and eucalyptus leaf on the nose of this bottling. The palate is more directly lush, showing baked black cherry and creamy cola, chai and root beer spice flavors.

The 2022 Pinot Noir Rosella's Vineyard is the most lifted and aromatic of the Roar Pinot Noirs. It offers a beautiful, defined nose of red fruits, citrus peels, fresh herbs and luxurious touches of new French oak. On the palate, it exudes a silky, lavish texture that refrains from going over the top, concluding with a vibrant finish that recalls the toasty oak imprint of the nose. After further integration in bottle, this should be a joy to drink over the next 5-7 years.

The 2022 Pinot Noir Rosella's Vineyard is lighter in the context of the ROAR lineup. More floral and savory in style, the Rosella’s is supremely elegant, eschewing bold fruit in favor of soft textures and beguiling aromatics—white flower, tangerine peel, lavender and exotic spice. Dusty tannins grip the long finish. This is really nicely done.