On a trip to California while on the hunt for Napa and Sonoma wines, we found this bottle of Primo’s Hill Pinot Noir from Poseidon Vineyard at @BirdRockFineWine.

Only 125 cases were made of this from fruit grown on two acres of pebbly slopes facing east and north in the Los Carneros AVA.

Take a minute to look at a picture of their main vineyards here.  You can see Poseidon is literally located at sea level where the Carneros Creek and Napa River meet the northern tip of San Pablo Bay.  This cool fact is memorialized on their bottle and the end of each cork.

The vineyards were planted by Nicholas Molnar, an Hungarian immigrant to California in 1973 when planting vines in Carneros was really not the thing to do.  Thankfully, he didn’t care and planted them anyway.  Today his partners and sons continue his work.

This region has since become renowned for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir precisely because the nights and early mornings are cooled by breezes coming off the bay and through the Petaluma Gap.  And interestingly, this is one of the few vineyards in the world that can be accessed by boat directly from the sea – hence the name Poseidon.

On the eyes, this wine is translucent ruby with aromas of baked cherry, cedar bark strips, lavender and sandalwood.

The palate is elegant and dry with flavours of more juicy red fruit – red plum, pomegranate and cherry – cola, sage, crunchy tarragon, and a little leather glove to slide into from the Hungarian oak barrels used.  They’ve owned the Kádár cooperage in Hungary for 20 years and the barrels are brought directly from there.

With its lovely long finish and rounded palate, to its beautifully resolved tannins, this is seriously delicious wine.  Find it in California, at the winery or at specialty wine stores like Bird Rock Fine Wine.

WSET Very Good plus