Elkhorn Peak Cellars Pinot Noir

Tasting notes & discussion 61

Typically $70/bottle from Elkhorn Peak Cellars
Vintage 2020 from Napa Valley
Available for AL; AZ; AR; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; IA; KS; KY; LA; ME; MD; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; NE; NV; NH; NJ; NM; NY; NC; ND; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VT; VA; WA; WV; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Elkhorn Peak Cellars: “At Elkhorn Peak Cellars, everything begins at home. Our vineyard sits at the heart of a 28-acre organic farm in south Napa Valley, part of a working homestead our family has been building with love since 1983. We farm the old-fashioned way: by hand, with heart, and always with the future in mind.”

Secretly Self-Sufficient, Publicly Decorative

TASTING NOTES: “The 2020 Pinot Noir Reserve is a wine of richness and refinement, showcasing the depth of our estate fruit with the added influence of new oak. Aromas of ripe black cherry, raspberry compote, and violet are layered with warm notes of vanilla, clove, and cedar. The palate is concentrated yet polished, with flavors of dark plum, pomegranate, and baking spice unfolding over a framework of fine-grained tannins.” (AbV 14.8%, pH 3.71, TA 6.0 g/L)

VARIETALS: 100% Estate grown Pinot Noir; 5 clones (Pommard, Dijon 114 & 115, swan and “R” clone)

BARRELS: 12 months French oak barrels; 15% new oak + 85% neutral oak

PAIRS WITH: N/A

THAT REMINDS ME OF: Violet — one of the aromas the tasting note calls out, alongside black cherry and raspberry compote.

Violets have a secret life that undercuts every dainty, shrinking-violet cliché attached to them. The purple flowers you actually notice in spring — the ones getting compared to wine and perfume and old ladies’ sachets — are mostly for show. They rarely even set seed. The real reproductive labor happens later in the season, underground or hidden near the base of the plant, in small closed buds called cleistogamous flowers that never open, never get pollinated by anything external, and just self-fertilize in the dark. Botanists have known this since the 1800s and it still feels like a scandal: the violet you’re admiring isn’t really the one doing the work.

I like that there’s a flower running two completely different strategies at once and only shows you the decorative one. Feels like an unfair amount of range for something that mostly gets used as a synonym for “modest.”

PRODUCER PODCAST: Elkhorn Peak Cellars Pinot Noir (1:33)

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

Do you have a secret 'doing the actual work' side that people don't see?

Definitely — what people see is the least of it

Definitely — what people see is the least of it
A little, but it's not that deep

A little, but it's not that deep
No, what you see is what you get with me

No, what you see is what you get with me
I'm still figuring out which side is the real one

I'm still figuring out which side is the real one
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