Published by Jeremy.
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It should be no surprise that Arista was one of our favorite wineries in Sonoma from our last visit, and since then we have been building a cellar of their stellar Pinot Noirs as club members.
One of our favorite vineyard plots, Perli Vineyards, was one of our favorites and we have a modest collection that is sleeping for some age.
We decided to pull a bottle of this gem from our cellar from the 2019 vintage to check how it was doing at approximately four years old, and this one, naturally, still had a lot of youth in it while just starting to show signs of age!
Arista's Perli Vineyard Pinot is Stellar
This Pinot Noir was pale ruby in color with medium(+) aromas of red cherry, cranberry, raspberry, black cherry, cola, vanilla, clove, sage, oregano, cassis, tobacco, leather, and a faint bit of tar.
On the palate it was dry with high acidity and alcohol, medium smooth tannin, medium(+) body and flavor intensity, and a long finish. We had notes of red cherry, cranberry, black raspberry, blackberry, cola, blueberry, clove, cedar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cacao, and vanilla to name a few.
This one had all of the hallmarks of a classic Pinot Noir from a warm climate and, while still youthful, is just starting to show some age that we look forward to trying with a few more years in bottle.
Pinot Noir Food Pairing – Sous Vide Duck Breast with Lingonberry Sauce
We went for a classic pairing for this Pinot Noir- duck breast. The duck breast was first cooked in sous vide and then seared skin side down to render out the fat and produce that perfect, crispy skin that all duck breast should have. We topped it with a homemade lingonberry red wine sauce to give a red fruit pop with acidity and sweetness to offset the otherwise savory bird.
It was, of course, stellar.
The acidity in the Pinot Noir held as expected, the tannins were matched by the intense fattiness of the duck, and an increase of dark fruit like blueberry and blackberry were noted as a result. This likely had a bit to do with the lingonberry sauce being tart red fruit offsetting some of the wine's flavors, but we still enjoyed it all the same.
Score: 4.5 / 5
We want several bottles of this one.
Overall, Arista always knocks it out of the park with their single vineyard Pinot Noirs, and the Perli Vineyard plot is always one of our very favorites. Could we make the argument that this should be a 5 / 5 because we want cases of this one? Absolutely. But because we buy many bottles from Arista as a whole, that distinction is best for the producer at large- we do indeed have cases, but not just of Perli Vineyard proper, and we're quite okay with that.
Arista Winery is located at 7015 Westside Rd, in Healdsburg, California. We purchased this bottle directly from the winery and enjoyed it in 2023.
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