Thomas Fogarty Will's Cabin Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains 2018 (750ml) *

High in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Pinot Noir takes on a firmer, cooler-climate structure than it does in California's warmer valleys, and this single-vineyard bottling from Thomas Fogarty leans into that. Drawn from the Will's Cabin site and made in 2018, it comes from a lineup where the fruit is grown and vinified with an eye to depth rather than delicacy. This vintage marks the first inclusion of a new block, one worked with fewer whole clusters than is usual here.

Expect a darker, more voluptuous read on the grape than the light-and-lifted Pinot cliché. Ripe black cherry sits at the center, wrapped in cola, spice, and a streak of mocha, and the whole thing carries real weight and drive. Potent and extroverted, it favors those who like their Pinot with muscle.