Russian River Pinot Pleasure : 2020 Meeker Nakai Vineyard Pinot Noir Russian River
Pressure makes diamonds, that's a fact. One of the Earth's most precious natural stones is formed when subject to immense pressure and temperatures. The 2020 harvest was subject to a number of outside pressures and rising temperatures. This challenging, low-yielding vintage produced wines of exceptional quality. Today we have one of these jewels.
The world changed in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe and forever changed the world as we knew it. Winemakers not only had to adapt to a global pandemic but also battled rising temperatures. It's no secret that 2020 was a challenging vintage but when there's pressure, there are diamonds. The 2020 Meeker Nakai Vineyard Pinot Noir Russian River is one of those exquisite rocks.
Coming from California's highly-acclaimed Russian River Valley, this wine is a master class in cool climate winemaking. It's light and precise full of fresh strawberries, soft raspberries, bright hibiscus, red licorice, vanilla bean, and a touch of forest floor. It's a food-friendly wine that's full of depth and really highlights the beauty of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.
There's no better way to highlight this Pinot oasis than with a grower who's been cultivating grapes from this vineyard for over 40 years! The Nakai Vineyard has been cared for under the watchful eye of Akie Nakai who purchased the vineyard in 1980 (that's before the Russian River Valley was in vogue). He's won multiple awards locally and internationally for his winemaking talents.
The team at Meeker partnered with Mr. Nakai to cultivate this low-yielding, high-quality vintage into something extraordinary. This single-vineyard Pinot highlights the quality fruit cultivated in the face of adversity. This vineyard battled through the economic pressures of the coronavirus pandemic along with rising temperatures to create "limited, but exquisite" Pinot Noir.
100-point Sonoma winemaker Jessie Katz told SevenFifty that the 2020 vintage produced the "darkest, richest, densest wines of my career" and that "spectacular wines will come from 2020." While DuMOL winemaker told Wine Enthusiast that "the fruit was exceptional quality, rich and vibrant, so almost zero sorting was required." 2020 was a vintage that tested every single vigneron in California and reward them with rich, quality fruit.
This cool climate single-vineyard Pinot that's perfect for summer drinking is coming to you at $20 below the standard retail price, it's also the best price you'll find anywhere in the universe. Small, hard-to-find producer working with an independent grower; this is what wine buying is all about. Don't miss out.
