The Cristom estate vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley. Photo: Cristom Vineyards.
Quick answer: what is the best Pinot Noir to buy right now?
The best Pinot Noir is the one that tastes like where it grew, and right now that means three places above all: Burgundy, Oregon's Willamette Valley, and the cool, foggy edges of California, from the Sonoma Coast to the Sta. Rita Hills. Great Pinot Noir is light on its feet and long on flavor: red cherry and raspberry, rose petal and baking spice, an earthy, forest-floor undertone, silky tannins and bright acidity. It is the most food-friendly red in the world and the most place-sensitive grape there is, which is why a good one from a serious grower is worth every dollar and a cheap, jammy one is worth none. Every wine on this page was chosen the same way: rated 90 points or better by an independent critic, in stock and ready to ship the day you read this, one wine per estate, and priced across the whole ladder so there is a genuine answer here whether you are pouring on a Tuesday or celebrating something.
Pinot Noir is the grape that punishes shortcuts. Cabernet forgives a warm site or a heavy hand in the cellar; Pinot does not. Grow it somewhere too warm and it turns to jam, push it in the winery and it loses the perfume that is the entire point. That is why the best bottles cluster in cool places with long, slow ripening: the limestone slopes of the Cote d'Or, the volcanic hills of Oregon, the ridges above the fog on the Sonoma Coast and the wind-scoured corridor of the Sta. Rita Hills. Every one of those places is represented below, and each entry says why the bottle earned its seat.
How to read this list. The wines run from the splurge down to the everyday, so scroll to the price you have in mind and stop there. Each entry carries the critic's score because a number from Decanter, James Suckling or Jeb Dunnuck is worth more than our opinion, but the story under it is the reason we bought the wine: who farms it, what the site does to the grape, and what it actually tastes like from the producer's own notes. Two shortcuts sit at the top of the list: the bottles the critics scored highest, and the ones our customers keep coming back for. If you want to understand the grape before you spend, our full Pinot Noir range and the guides linked at the bottom are the longer read.
One more thing before you scroll: this page keeps itself honest. Good Pinot Noir at a fair price moves, and a guide recommending a bottle nobody can buy is just an advertisement for disappointment. When a wine here sells through it comes off the list automatically and the next one we would genuinely recommend from the same region takes its place. Every price and every bottle below is live: this is what is in the cellar today, not a snapshot from whenever this page was written.
The Best Pinot Noirs to Buy Right Now, From the Splurge to the Everyday Bottle
What the experts are drinking now: 2023 The Hilt Estate Pinot Noir Sta Rita Hills (99 Decanter); 2021 Haynes Vineyard Pinot Noir Forgeron Coombsville (96 James Suckling); 2023 Benmar Into the Fog Pinot Noir Willamette Valley (96 Decanter).
What our customers are loving now: 2023 Domaine Serene 'Yamhill Cuvee' Pinot Noir Willamette Valley; 2023 Benmar Into the Fog Pinot Noir Willamette Valley; 2022 Patz & Hall Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast; 2023 Martellotto 'Velvet Riff' Pinot Noir Napa Valley.
1. 2023 Domaine Michel Gros Vosne Romanee Pinot Noir Cote de Nuits
90 Vinous
Pinot Noir's most revered village, from one of Burgundy's founding families.
Vosne-Romanee is the village that gave the world Romanee-Conti, and the Gros family has been making wine there since the early 1800s. When Jean Gros retired in the early 1990s the estate was split among four heirs; Michel took the walled Clos des Reas monopole and parcels across the village, and forty years later he farms eighteen hectares of red limestone on cool east-facing slopes. His style is the village's silky power without the grip: red and black fruit folding into violets and a whisper of licorice, medium-bodied, pliant tannins, no hard edges. Vinous found incense and crushed violets bursting from the glass and called it the most promising of the domaine's village wines. Cellar it, or give it an hour in a decanter tonight.
2. 2021 Haynes Vineyard Pinot Noir Forgeron Coombsville
96 James Suckling
The oldest Pinot Noir vines in Napa, planted before man walked on the moon.
Some of these vines went into the ground in 1967, when Andre Tchelistcheff was given permission to plant Pinot Noir in the coolest corner of Coombsville, inside the collapsed caldera of an ancient volcano. They are the oldest Pinot vines in Napa Valley, and Forgeron is the barrel selection off the lowest-density, oldest Martini-clone blocks. Winemaker Nico Cueva, who ran the cellar at Kosta Browne, works with a light hand: whole clusters, restraint, oak only as a frame. The result reads like cool-climate Burgundy wearing a Napa address, hibiscus and rose and citrus over bright red fruit, spice, cedar and sweet tobacco, medium-bodied and crunchy, with juicy cool-site acidity carrying a long finish. James Suckling: so floral. Pour it with duck or a mushroom risotto.
3. 2024 Occidental-Kistler Vineyards 'Freestone-Occidental' Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
95 Jeb Dunnuck
Steve Kistler walked away from Kistler to make only this.
Steve Kistler founded Kistler Vineyards in 1978 and spent nearly four decades turning it into one of the most revered names in American wine, then stepped away in 2017 to devote himself to a single obsession: Pinot Noir from the wind-scoured coastal ridges above Freestone and Occidental. This is the bottling that draws on both ranches, from a Goldilocks vintage with no heat spikes through July and August. Crystalline and bright: crushed red berries, blood orange, pomegranate, a whisper of baking spice, then a mouthwatering saline palate with a fine mineral edge and sculpted tannins on a long, faintly briny finish. A modest thirteen percent alcohol keeps it precise. Jeb Dunnuck gave it 95 and called it fabulous.
Take 6+: $65.00 a bottle · 12+: $55.00 a bottle
4. 2022 Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils Marsannay Clos des Portes Monopole
90-93 points
Clos des Portes is a walled four-acre monopole at the northern tip of the Cote de Nuits, owned outright by Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon. Guillon was born in Paris to a military family, began in 1980 with just over five acres, apprenticed with Henri Jayer, and over four decades built an estate of thirty-seven acres across more than twenty appellations; his son Alexis trained two years at Domaine G. Roumier. Limestone and clay under a cool climate give the Pinot its sharp minerality and vibrant acidity: black cherry and dark forest fruit layered with savory notes from careful aging in new French oak, medium-bodied, precise structure, ripe tannins and a vibrant mineral finish. Burghound rated the vintage outstanding.
5. 2023 The Hilt Estate Pinot Noir Sta Rita Hills
99 Decanter
What Screaming Eagle's owner built in the harshest corner of the Sta. Rita Hills.
Some vineyards are planted; The Hilt was chosen, carved into the most wind-punished quadrant of the Sta. Rita Hills, where low-vigor vines fight for every grape. The owner is Stan Kroenke, whose other wine estate is Screaming Eagle, and the winemaker is Matt Dees, a blender revered as one of the finest in the country. He assembles this from a patchwork of estate parcels, each with its own altitude, aspect and microclimate, and raises it eleven months in twenty percent new French oak. Black and red fruit swirl with exotic spice, green nori, cacao and cinnamon, dried porcini and pancetta, hibiscus tea. Silky and suave in texture, fine and finessed in structure, long on plush dark fruit and dusty loam. Decanter scored it 99; James Suckling 95.
6. 2023 Domaine Serene 'Yamhill Cuvee' Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
93 James Suckling
The Oregon estate that beat Burgundy at Decanter, in its everyday bottling.
In 1989 Ken and Grace Evenstad bought a fog-bound, just-logged hilltop in the Dundee Hills sight unseen, built a five-level gravity-flow winery, planted only Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and bet that Oregon could speak Burgundy's language. The receipts: a number three Wine of the World for the 2010 Evenstad Reserve, a 2012 bottling that beat twenty-six premier cru and six grand cru Burgundies for Best in Show at the Decanter World Wine Awards, and a place at White House state dinners. Yamhill Cuvee is the gateway, a house-style blend across Yamhill-Carlton, the Dundee Hills and the Eola-Amity Hills. Rose petals, cranberry, crushed strawberry and dark cherry with cedar spice, rounded and supple, fine-grained tannins and a long perfumed finish. James Suckling: bright and juicy.
7. 2023 Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
94 Jeb Dunnuck
The founding family of the extreme Sonoma Coast.
Walt and Joan Flowers founded the estate in 1989, when almost nobody believed you could grow great Pinot two miles from the Pacific. Only Hirsch and Bohan were out there. Today the area has a name, the extreme Sonoma Coast, and Flowers is its founding family, with ridge vineyards at Camp Meeting Ridge and Sea View Ridge sitting above the marine fog between 1,150 and 1,875 feet. Wine Enthusiast calls the winery a training ground for California's cool-climate greats and named it a 2025 American Winery of the Year finalist. This is the Sonoma Coast bottling: red cherry, cranberry, rose petal and sweet baking spice with that wet-redwood forest-floor note, medium-bodied, silky fine-grained tannins and a cool saline thread. Jeb Dunnuck gave it 94 for its finesse.
8. 2023 Benmar Into the Fog Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
96 Decanter
A hundred cases from two Oregon hillsides whose neighbors charge far more for the same dirt.
Greg Bybee learned the craft among the vines at Rochioli, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and named this wine for his children, Bennett and Marecca; his wife Jen shot the label photograph. The fruit comes from two vineyards with serious neighbors: Hollis, a thousand feet up the Chehalem Mountains above J. Christopher, and a Dundee Hills site surrounded by Alexana and Nicolas-Jay. Eighteen months in forty percent new French oak, and only one hundred cases made. Decanter gave it 96 for dark Bing cherry and raspberry over forest underbrush, conifer, rose petals and loamy earth, apple-skin tannins, crunchy pomegranate, smoky clove and pressed violets, and called it a remarkable wine for only its second vintage.
Take 6+: $34.99 a bottle · 12+: $29.99 a bottle
9. 2022 Patz & Hall Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
92 James Suckling
Sonoma Coast Pinot from the house that put single vineyards on the label.
Founded in 1988 by four partners, Patz & Hall built its reputation on single-vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast, Carneros and the Russian River Valley, and on grower partnerships with sites like Gap's Crown, Dutton Ranch and Hudson Vineyard. Founding winemaker James Hall still runs the cellar, and the wines have landed on Wine Spectator's Top 100 list. The 2022 Sonoma Coast was raised in twenty-eight percent new French oak: fresh red cherry and just-ripe strawberry framed by cool-climate acidity, with savory layers of pine, toasted sugar and wild bramble, cocoa powder and rose petal on the nose, fine-grained tannins and a spiced, tea-scented finish. Effortlessly versatile at the table.
10. 2024 Cristom Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
95 James Suckling
The Pinot Noir sommeliers pour more than any other in America.
Few American wineries have earned the quiet reverence Cristom commands. Family-owned since 1992 in Oregon's Eola-Amity Hills, it has done one thing exceptionally well for three decades: grow Pinot Noir on volcanic hillsides that rival Burgundy's great addresses, which is why Wine & Spirits keeps ranking it first among the restaurant Pinot Noir producers of the country. The Willamette Valley bottling is a blend of barrels from benchmark sites including the estate's own Eileen, Paul Gerrie, Louise and Jessie vineyards, made with whole-cluster fermentation and native yeasts. Rose and lavender over blue fruit and plum, then concentrated blackberry and black cherry, silky tannins and a clean mineral finish. James Suckling gave the 2024 a 95, and Jeb Dunnuck calls 2024 one of the defining Oregon vintages of the modern era.
11. 2023 Martellotto 'Velvet Riff' Pinot Noir Napa Valley
92 Decanter
A Napa Pinot that makes Cabernet look over its shoulder.
Napa is Cabernet country. Everyone knows it. Every now and then a Pinot comes along so bold and textured that it makes Cabernet look over its shoulder, and this is that wine. Greg Martellotto, whose Italian bloodline carries generations of winemaking, has made wine here since 2005, and Velvet Riff strides in with layers of ripe black cherry, dark plum and wild strawberry wrapped in silky tannins and laced with exotic spice. Decanter gave it 92 and wrote that, as the name suggests, it is all velvet and silk, ripe cherry and cherrywood framing walnut and apricot-pit notes, sinewy tannins with a cocoa-powder quality and a finish that lingers on rose. It is not made in big numbers, and the people who find it wish they had bought more.
Take 6+: $29.99 a bottle · 12+: $24.99 a bottle
12. 2024 Martellotto 'Le Bon Temps Roule' Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills
92 Decanter
Sta. Rita Hills Pinot with a cinnamon warmth that begs a second bottle.
Loosely translated from Cajun French, Le Bon Temps Roule means let the good times roll, and this Pinot does exactly that. Greg Martellotto, with an Italian winemaking bloodline and two decades of California vintages behind him, takes fruit from the Sta. Rita Hills, the cool, wind-raked corner of Santa Barbara County, and makes a wine of real sensual ease: lavender, oak and bright raspberry on the nose, then vibrant dark cherry and cranberry over earthy undertones, a hint of prune for depth, and that irresistible cinnamon warmth as it opens up. Medium-bodied, fine tannins, refreshing acidity, and only 450 cases made. Decanter gave it 92 and found a zesty blood-orange lift on the finish. Give it thirty minutes in a decanter.
Take 6+: $24.99 a bottle
Buy All 12 Pinot Noirs as One Case
Every wine on this list, in one case — $717.81
$1,134.00 if you bought all twelve separately at list — you save $416.19.
See the case and everything in it
FREE shipping — every order of 12 bottles or more ships free. This case updates automatically as vintages sell through, so what you see here is what is actually in the cellar today.
How to Serve Pinot Noir: Temperature, Glass and Decanting
Serve Pinot Noir cooler than any other red you own. Fifty-five to sixty degrees is the window, which means twenty minutes in the refrigerator if the bottle has been standing in a warm kitchen. Served warm, Pinot tastes flat and alcoholic and the perfume that makes it worth buying simply evaporates. Pour it into a wide-bowled glass so the aromatics have room, and if you are opening a young Burgundy, give it thirty minutes in a decanter. Most Oregon and California bottles are ready the moment the cork comes out. Pinot is also the classic chillable red: on a hot evening, a lighter bottle taken straight from the fridge is one of the great pleasures of the grape.
At the table it is the easiest red to pair. High acidity and low tannin let it sit next to salmon, duck, roast chicken, pork, anything with mushrooms, and the entire Thanksgiving spread. The one thing it does not want is a heavily charred steak, which calls for a bigger, more tannic wine.
How to Choose a Pinot Noir: Region Is the First Question
With Pinot Noir, the address on the label tells you more than the score. Burgundy is the original and still the reference: savory, mineral, red-fruited, built on limestone and centuries of inherited plots, and priced accordingly, which is why village-level bottles from good domaines are the honest way in and why our region-by-region guide to French wine spends so long there. Oregon's Willamette Valley is the closest thing America has to Burgundy, cooler and wetter than California, with wines that lean toward red fruit, forest floor and tension at the table. The Sonoma Coast and Carneros sit under heavy Pacific fog and produce something riper and silkier, and the Sta. Rita Hills, a wind tunnel opening straight onto the ocean west of Santa Barbara, splits the difference with dark fruit and real structure. If you have ever wondered what a great estate in this style feels like from the inside, our visit to Donum Estate is the closest thing to standing in the vineyard.
If Cabernet is your usual shelf and this is your first serious Pinot, start in California and work north and east; if you already love Burgundy, the Oregon bottles here will feel like family. Everything we ship from the state sits in our California range, and if you want the same idea pointed at a different grape, our guide to the Napa Cabernets we rate most highly right now and our French wines for California drinkers are built exactly the same way: rated, in stock, and refreshed automatically as bottles sell through.
Pinot Noir questions, answered
What is the best Pinot Noir to buy right now?
Our current top pick is 2023 Domaine Michel Gros Vosne Romanee Pinot Noir Cote de Nuits at $138.99 — the highest-conviction wine on this list of twelve. If you want the whole spread, the complete 12-bottle case is $717.81 and ships free.
What is the best Pinot Noir under $50?
Right now we recommend 2023 Domaine Serene 'Yamhill Cuvee' Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($49.96); 2023 Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($44.96); 2023 Benmar Into the Fog Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($39.99); 2022 Patz & Hall Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast ($38.98). Every wine on this page is in stock and scored 90+ — the list refreshes automatically as vintages sell through.
How much does a good Pinot Noir cost?
More than it should, usually — but it does not have to. The twelve wines on this list run $30 to $139. Genuine, critic-scored Pinot Noir starts around $30 when you buy from a direct importer instead of a restaurant list or grocery shelf.
Is Oregon Pinot Noir better than California Pinot Noir?
Neither is better; they answer different cravings. Oregon's Willamette Valley runs cooler and wetter, so its Pinot leans toward red fruit, higher acidity and a savory forest-floor character closer to Burgundy. The Sonoma Coast and the Sta. Rita Hills get more sun under heavy Pacific fog, so California lands riper and silkier with darker fruit. Buy Oregon for tension at the table and California for generosity in the glass.
What does a good Pinot Noir taste like?
Red fruit first: cherry, raspberry, cranberry or pomegranate, often with rose petal, baking spice and an earthy, forest-floor undertone. The body is light to medium, the tannins are silky rather than grippy, and the acidity is bright enough to keep you reaching for the glass. If a Pinot tastes heavy, jammy or oaky, it is trying to be a Cabernet.
Should Pinot Noir be served chilled?
Slightly, yes. Pinot Noir shows best between 55 and 60 degrees, which usually means twenty minutes in the refrigerator before you pour. Served at room temperature it tastes flat and alcoholic, and its delicate aromatics disappear. Young Burgundy also benefits from thirty minutes in a decanter; California and Oregon bottles are usually ready the moment the cork comes out.
What food goes best with Pinot Noir?
Pinot Noir is the most food-friendly red there is, because high acidity and low tannin let it sit next to almost anything. Salmon, duck, roast chicken, pork, mushrooms in any form and the whole Thanksgiving table are the classics. Skip heavily charred steak, which wants a bigger, more tannic wine.
Which Pinot Noirs are the critics scoring highest right now?
The scores on this page come from Decanter, James Suckling, Jeb Dunnuck, Vinous and the Wine Advocate, and the three highest-scored bottles are named in the 'what the experts are drinking now' line at the top of the list. It is recomputed whenever the list changes, so it always reflects the wines actually in stock. Scores tell you a wine is well made; the region and the producer's style tell you whether you will love it.
Why is Burgundy Pinot Noir so much more expensive than California Pinot Noir?
Burgundy's vineyards are tiny plots split by centuries of inheritance, its appellation rules cap yields, frost and hail regularly wipe out part of a crop, and the whole world wants the top names. Village-level bottles from good domaines are still the honest way in. Oregon and the Sonoma Coast deliver the same grape, made in the same spirit, for a fraction of what the famous villages command.
Related
ReadArt, Land, and Wine: What a Visit to Donum Estate Actually Feels Like
ReadSonoma Wine: Where California Wine Was Born
ReadChillable Red Wines: The Complete Guide to Reds You Should Be Refrigerating
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