2023 Occidental Station Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 6pk 6x750ml

Before there was Occidental, there was Kistler Vineyards — the winery Steve Kistler founded in 1978 and built, over nearly four decades, into one of the most revered names in American wine. Kistler's Chardonnays became the benchmark for the "wines of site" movement in California, earning Wine Spectator's "Chardonnay of the Year" award in back-to-back years for the Durell Vineyard bottling, and were famously named "Best of the Best" among "Star Producers" by Food & Wine Magazine. Bottles from the Kistler Vineyards portfolio have collected some of the highest scores ever given to American Chardonnay — including a 98-point Wine Spectator score for the Vine Hill Vineyard bottling, which landed at #6 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of the Year — and the label remains, to this day, one of the most sought-after mailing-list allocations in the country. Steve ran that program almost single-handedly for close to forty years before stepping away in 2017 to devote himself fully to a new, singular obsession: Pinot Noir.

That obsession became Occidental, an entirely separate estate built from the ground up on the wind-scoured coastal ridges above Freestone and Occidental. Today Steve farms alongside his daughter Catherine Kistler, now the estate's second-generation winemaker, who has stepped fully into the role of shaping Occidental's wines and its future. Together they oversee just 65 dry-farmed, own-rooted acres, planted with proprietary massale selections Steve developed over thirty years of vineyard work — vine material found nowhere else, matched block by block to these singular coastal sites.

The winemaking philosophy is the same discipline that made the Kistler name legendary in the first place: every wine is fermented with native yeasts and native malolactic bacteria, hand-sorted, and made entirely from free-run juice, with zero shortcuts across the range.

Occidental Station Vineyard sits fifteen minutes inland from the Occidental estate — the only site Steve Kistler planted in 1998. That decision carries weight: Kistler doesn't scatter vineyards across Sonoma Coast on impulse. He chose this parcel for a reason, and the 2023 bottling proves it was the right one.

The 2023 vintage arrived cool and fog-blanketed, stretching the growing season and delivering crystalline clarity. The wine is dense, defined by raw, unbridled energy — less immediate than past vintages, but built to reward patience. Medium ruby-purple in the glass, it floats on the palate with exceptional detail, elegant saltiness, and a silky texture that belies its power.

The aromatics arrest: strawberry, raspberry, blood orange, rose petals, red licorice, mushroom. On the palate, mulberry and boysenberry coulis spark with rose hip, iris, and hibiscus. The flavors range from vivid fruit to bitters and earth, held in balance by vibrant acidity and a structure that feels weightless yet intense. The finish runs long and savory.

Jeb Dunnuck scored it 100. Wine Advocate scored it 98. Vinous 97. Wine Spectator 96. Four critics, four scores north of 96, and every one of them calling out the wine's singular character within the Occidental portfolio. This is Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir at the highest level, from a vineyard Kistler himself planted a quarter-century ago. The 2023 will cellar beautifully through the next decade — or pull the cork tonight and watch it unfold over two hours in the decanter.