Bergstrom Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard 2018

This highly acclaimed dry and warm vintage worked perfectly with this great vineyard site to not only accurately reflect the year but also to coax out the spicy, floral, and playful (yet serious) characteristics of this great thin-soiled, marine-sedimentary terroir. In a word, this wine is irresistible. Delicious now, but this great Pinot Noir will also age and develop positively for a decade. It has an exotically alluring bouquet of sweet spices, rare woods, incense, forest floor, and ripe cane berries. Rich, silky, and suave, with a full-bodied textural swath of fruit that washes over the palate with waves of ripe flavors, finally giving way to a wonderful chocolate, coffee, and sweet bakind spice finish that lasts and lasts. What a swan song vintage and wine for the Shea and Bergström families as a celebration of partnership and community!

94 Points - Wine Enthusiast    The Shea cuvée blends multiple blocks from this diverse and exceptional vineyard. It's dense with blackberry and black-cherry fruit, concentrated and more than a little deep. Highlights of cocoa, coffee grounds, truffle and tobacco trail out through a lingering, captivating finish. *Editors' Choice*

91 Points - Wine Spectator    Refined and firmly structured, with focused cherry, crushed stone and dusky spice accents that build tension toward medium-grained tannins. Hands off for now.

91 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate    Pale ruby, the 2018 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard is delicately scented of dried herbs, pepper, earth and bright red berries. The palate is soft and juicy with earth-laced fruits and a long, spicy finish.