Cobb Pinot Noir Estate Coastlands Vineyard Sonoma Coast 2021

Well, well, well, if it isn’t a DOUBLE 96 point, micro-produced, “true” Sonoma Coast estate pinot noir from a cherished family producer! Free shipping on 2+ bottles just turned our Monday around for the better!

We’ve made it no secret that we’re some of Cobb Wines’ most flagrant fans. Their commitment to excellent, low-intervention coastal pinot noirs, small production numbers, and expressive terroirs – along with their family’s steadfast and humble efforts to grow their small winery business from the ground up – is commendable. The cherry on top is that their wine is truly, authentically incredible – farmed or sourced from impeccable cool-climate plots, and vinified with little intervention to allow the earth and grapes to speak for themselves.

As David and Diane Cobb neared retirement, they searched from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border for a property close to both the redwoods and the coastline. Settling on a piece of land on the western edges of Sonoma County, they built a redwood-framed home and hand-planted their Coastlands estate vineyard starting in 1989. Aiming to simply grow exquisite fruit for other producers to make wine, the Cobbs sold some of their first usable bounty to Williams Selyem in 1992. Ross Cobb, their son, went on to become the viticulturist and enologist for Williams Selyem in 1999, before eventually venturing into the idea of creating wine from his own family’s plantings. The first vintage of Cobb Wines’ Coastlands Vineyard pinot noir was harvested in 2001, vinified in a little hand-dug cellar beneath the family home’s front deck.

Ross has continued making wines for both his family, as well as a number of other top Sonoma Coast wineries, leveraging relationships to be able to source from some of the best vineyards in Northern California to expand the Cobb Wines portfolio. Their Coastlands Vineyard sits at 1,150 feet elevation and a mere 3 miles from the coast, boasting deep, rich soils that produce complex, intense, small berries on the vines. The 2021 vintage is widely considered to be a collector’s vintage, producing extraordinary wines of great power, depth, and concentration with a searing acid retention and ample sense of place.

It’s clear that synopsis holds true in the case of the Cobb family’s 2021 Coastlands Pinot Noir, which Antonio Galloni describes in his 96-point review for Vinous as, “In a word: dazzling.” With a crushed red fruit core of raspberries, strawberries, and pomegranate, this vibrant and layered pinot features concentrated notes of blood orange, dried lavender, black tea, mint leaves, a sprinkle of coriander, spicy oak, and white pepper, with a saline element certainly imparted by the nearby Pacific Ocean proximity. Wildly exotic and robust in its complexities – this is a pinot you will be able to happily drink over the next decade, perhaps longer! Free shipping on two-plus bottles – do not wait to make this yours!

PAIRING IDEAS: The peppery spiced sausage, creamy potatoes, and rich broth of Zuppa Toscana will be a prime partner to this brilliantly multifaceted pinot noir. Don’t forget a hunk of fresh sourdough with a heaping spread of whipped butter to sop it up! (The broth, that is, not the wine...although…)