2014 Anthill Farms "Harmony Lane" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Sweet dark cherry, plum, mint, cloves and lavender all open up in the Pinot Noir Harmony Lane. Round, sweet and enveloping, but in the classic Anthill Farms style, the 2014 is super-expressive today. The juicy, succulent finish only adds to the wine's considerable appeal. This is a very sexy, mid-weight Pinot. Anthony Filiberti describes this site in Occidental as having warmer days and cooler nights - and therefore larger diurnal shifts - than the other sites he works with. Anthony Filiberti crafts Pinots and Syrahs endowed with real personality at Anthill Farms. That said, my sense is that Filiberti would rather be in the vineyard than in the cellar, something that was reinforced by the numerous unsolicited comments I heard from other producers raving about the quality of his farming. As always, the Anthill Pinots see a good bit of whole clusters (50% for the Peters and Tina Marie and 30-40% for everything else) and are aged in mostly neutral oak, with no racking until bottling. (AG)