Tasting Highlights: California Pinot Noir

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Alma Rosa's La Encantada vineyard, in the Santa Rita Hills.

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10 exciting new California Pinot Noirs, with a focus on screw-capped new brands

James Laube
Posted: March 2, 2009

Hanzell is back in a groove with its best Pinot Noir in years: The 2006 features ripe, supple, complex fruit and more polish and finesse than this varietal typically offered in its youth. This historic Sonoma icon made relentlessly long-aged wines for years, but stumbled with a few vintages where the wines were tainted by the contaminant TCA.

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