Drink: 2025-2038
VERY LIMITED!
From Winemaker Andy Smith
"At twenty years old, our Estate Pinot vines are at the height of their powers—and in a vintage as successful as 2023, it’s natural that they would produce their finest quality to date. These vines left nothing out in the field in 2023; they grew and produced at their highest potential, and through our finely honed craft, we were able to capture and preserve that quality during fermentation, aging, blending, and finally bottling. The wine has a densely packed, tightly coiled power that elevates it and sets it apart. While approachable now due to the suppleness of the 2023 vintage, it’s really tucked in for future development—all the building blocks of future grand scale complexity are present in abundance. Don’t miss this release: one of the finest wines we’ve ever produced."
Winemaker Note
The wine is immediately dark, intense and pure with black fruits, hibiscus, dried herbs, cedar and Asian spices. Focused and linear, with air, the wine becomes expansive and layered. There's obvious, deep chewy fruit extract, the natural product of the grape skins themselves. The flavors drive towards a rising crescendo of black cherry and black currant fruit with melting tannins and prominent mineral acidity. Drink between late 2025 and 2038. A gentle decant will hasten the wine’s evolution in the glass.
98-100 Points Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir DuMOL Estate Vineyard is positively stunning. A blend of Calera and Swan, the 2023 dazzles from start to finish. It embodies all the elements of the DuMOL house style. Vibrant and persistent, the 2023 offers tremendous textural intensity and fine, fine balance. Red/purplish fruit, blood orange, mint, cloves and lavender build into the long, sustained finish. Quite simply, this is one of the very best wines I have ever tasted at DuMOL.
98 Points Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from the vineyards above Bressay, the ruby-hued 2023 Pinot Noir Dumol Estate Vineyard is based on a blend of Calera and Swan clones. It reveals aromas of ripe red cherries, cinnamon, raspberries, orange peel, and wildflowers. The palate has tremendous tension and more wound-up nervous energy, with fantastic linear drive. It’s a spectacular wine that will only improve with another several years in bottle.
97 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard comes from Calera and Swan vines planted in 2005. Grapes were harvested on September 14 and 22, and the wine was matured for 15 months in 37% new French oak. "For me, this is the wine of the vintage,” chief winemaker and proprietor Andy Smith says. “I first made this wine in 2007, and for me, this is unquestionably the best wine we’ve ever made from this vineyard.” The estate Pinot Noir is impressively pure and intense, with dramatically unfurling scents of pomegranate, blueberry, iron, juniper, charcuterie and violet. The medium-bodied palate offers expansive, kaleidoscopic flavors. It’s framed by refined, silky tannins and vibrant acidity and has a long, detailed finish. It should be long lived in the cellar. 1,200 cases were made.
