2021 Saveria Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, LIOCO

Now in our 10th year at Saveria, the vineyard is firing on all cylinders. Much of that can be attributed to our partnership there with star-viticulturalist Prudy Foxx, aka “the vine whisperer.” The 2021 Saveria, not surprisingly, was one of the wines-of-the-vintage for us. All sinew and snap it shows the powerful elegance of a prima ballerina. The chorus of dark and red fruit is delivered on the back of the wine’s tell: a coniferous quality bespoke of the redwoods enclosing the vineyard. Prudy calls it “airroir”—a clever riff on terroir—and says the grapes respirate the evergreen forest, the briny Monterey Bay, and the coastal flora in the space between.