Phillips Hill Estates

Just outside Anderson Valley to the north lies a tiny hamlet called Comptche. It’s not on the way to anywhere, but it’s becoming a destination in its own right for a simple but compelling reason: it’s a cool place that can ripen Pinot Noir. In today’s craze for cool-climate Pinot, there’s even talk that Comptche could become the centerpiece of a new appellation. (Watch this space.) Meantime, we can taste the wines coming out of Oppenlander Vineyard and wonder anew at how such rustic places can produce such richly tapestried fruit.

The wine smelled like Anderson Valley to me: spicy red plums, some dark baking spice, toasted oak and dry earth. In entered both ripe and bright, meaning the fruit was full-flavored and the acids were well-integrated alongside it. Complexity develops quickly across the mid-palate, and the finish is remarkably true to the aromas – red plums, dark spice and toasted oak. A surprisingly complete wine for one so outgoing in the first moments after entry. Production was small but there will be more of the 2006, so you should be able to score some and stump your wine expert friends over dinner this fall.

Reviewed August 3, 2007 by Thom Elkjer.