95/100
The 2019 Pinot Noir The Plow is ripe with raspberry liqueur, cedar, and moss-covered earth. The palate has a wonderfully energetic and persistent drive and fills with grenadine, iron-rich earth, and candied rose.
95/100
The 2019 Pinot Noir The Plow is ripe with raspberry liqueur, cedar, and moss-covered earth. The palate has a wonderfully energetic and persistent drive and fills with grenadine, iron-rich earth, and candied rose.
Vinous
95/100
The Pinots made by the team headed by Larry Stone (whose resume I won’t bore you with; it’s pretty well known and available on The Google) and winemaker Thomas Savre (whose own CV is also quite impressive) have quickly become among the best in the United States. For to my palate, the 2018s show wonderful clarity and no warm-vintage shortcomings, and I’ll wager that the 2019s are the best set of wines yet made here. In both years, one gets the generous fruit expression that marks the vintages and identifies the wines as “New World.” At the same time, there is distinct tension and focus in play, which confounds such stereotypes. New oak isn’t eschewed by Savre, but when it’s there, I find it well-played: an integral supporting actor, but not a star (think rhythm guitar versus lead). It’s early days to predict where these wines will go with age, but the right boxes (depth, energy, focus, structure and balance) are all ticked, suggesting that the 2018s and 2019s will deliver big dividends down the road.
Robert Parker
95/100
The 2019 Pinot Noir The Plow has inviting aromas of blackberry, cranberry, blood orange, forest floor and star anise. The light-bodied palate is chalky and refreshing with a deep core of floral fruit and a long, spicy finish.
Lingua Franca
Larry Stone, Dominique Lafon og Thomas Savre. De ikoniske navne står i kø, når det kommer til fortællingen om Lingua Franca. Larry Stone, der er Master Sommelier og en af USA's mest berømte af sin slags, er idémanden, som opkøbte den sagnomspundne Janzen Farm i Willamette Valley i Oregon, USA. Herefter fik han konsulterende assistance af en af Bourgognes mest anerkendte vinproducenter, Dominique Lafon. Målet var at dyrke Pinot Noir og Chardonnay, og her blev Dominique Lafons viden uundværlig. Den sidste del af trekløveren er Thomas Savre, en ung, visionær og virtuos vinmager, der har stået i lære hos selveste Domaine de la Romanée Conti. Med ham som ledende figur i kælderen var Lingua Franca født som et nyt powerhouse i vinverdenen. Siden har de markeret sig som bannerførere for potentialet for Bourgogne-sorterne på amerikansk jord og er efterspurgt af sommelierer verden over til deres vinkort.
