The Data

Country   USA

Appellation   Sonoma Coast

Varietal   Pinot Noir

Retail Price   $55

ABV   14.3%

Score   4.5 Stars/95 points

In the Glass

Brilliant, medium ruby color.

The aromatics are intense, offering scents of black cherry, forest floor, and black tea with supporting notes of boysenberry, black plum, and violet.

The palate echoes the nose delivering a black fruit-driven core with flavors of blackberry, elderberry, and five spice. The finish is long and lingering with firm tannins.

Medium to full-bodied and perfectly balanced with a chewy texture.

Cool Factor

Vintage after vintage Tongue Dancer never fails to impress as their Pinots are ultra balanced and full of flavor and personality making it very cool.

Value Grade

The Tongue Dancer Wines have proven their worth being stylish and complex, as well as being exceptionally limited and rare.

Analysis

This is the 11th vintage of Tongue Dancer Wines’ Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and as always it’s an impressive glass of Pinot Noir. We absolutely love this wine and could easily see the scores rise with a bit of cellaring. This vintage reminds us of their great 2019 — very Burgundian. We have reviewed every vintage since 2015 and while each wine is unique and always an expression of the vintage, each respective wine has scored 94 points or better. How’s that for consistency? In 2022, like 2021, most of the fruit was sourced from the Putnam Vineyard in the Russian River Valley with a bit of fruit from the Notre Vue Vineyard in West Sonoma Coast. For the Pinot geeks out there (we say with great affection) the clones used were Pommard 4, Calera, 777, 115, and Pommard. The berries were gently de-stemmed and not crushed. It was fermented in small, open-top fermenters with the cap punched-down by hand three times a day. Post fermentation the wine was aged in French oak (33% new) for a period of 11 months. It was bottled unfined and lightly filtered on 8 August, 2023.

How to Enjoy

This wine really needs nothing but a glass but the rich texture and bright acidity would love to pair with a grilled beef tenderloin or grilled leg of lamb.