2023 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 6pk 6x750ml

Paul Hobbs built his name at Robert Mondavi, Simi, and Opus One in the mid-1980s before founding his own winery in 1991. Two decades of consulting for California's elite estates — Peter Michael, Fisher, Lewis — and projects in Argentina and Hungary established him as one of the most influential winemakers of his generation. The Katherine Lindsay Estate in Sebastopol, purchased in 1998, sits in the western reaches of Russian River Valley, where cool Pacific fog and gravelly soils deliver the structure and bright acidity that define Russian River Pinot Noir.

The 2023 vintage started with bountiful winter rains and a cool, wet spring that extended flowering. June and July warmed, August brought unexpected rain, then perfect harvest weather arrived for vintners patient enough to wait into late October. The best 2023s carry gorgeous aromatics with underlying succulence — freshness and delineation that make the wines sing.

Harvested by hand at night between late September and mid-October, the fruit was sorted cold from the field and fermented with indigenous yeast after a five-day cold soak. Twelve percent whole cluster, sixteen-day maceration, spontaneous malolactic in barrel. Eleven months in French oak — just 27% new — then bottled unfined and unfiltered in August 2024. The winemaking is quiet, disciplined, built for the wine to speak.

Translucent ruby in the glass. Freshly picked violets, wild cherry, sage. Supple texture, integrated tannins, layered crushed pomegranate, blood orange extract, lightly steeped Rooibos tea. Bright acidity, a long, pure finish.

The savory, wind-swept character of the Russian River coast — shells, salt, red cherry, spice, umami — over silky, weightless texture. Built for a decade or more in the cellar, but unfolds beautifully over hours in the glass right now.