Beverage of the Week (BOW)

Product Story

We are happy to introduce Tongue Dancer Wines (TDW )'s sixth vintage of its “The Sly One” (TSO) Pinot Noir. The Sly One has earned its nickname this vintage as veteran BevXers and long-time fans of TDW associate the Pratt Vine Hill Vineyard with Chardonnay. Clearly, this vineyard is also home to some fancy Mt. Eden clone Pinot Noir. The Mt. Eden clone is one of California’s heritage Pinot Noir selections brought to the state by Paul Masson in the late 1800s from Burgundy. This is TDW’s first bottling of Pinot from this famed site, and it’s just as good as you imagined. The fruit was hand-picked and then hand-sorted, given a five-day, pre-fermentation cold maceration, native yeast fermentation, and daily puchdowns. The wine rested and developed in French oak, with one new barrel and the other two years old, for 11 months. This one was worth the wait.

BevX Score: 4.5 Stars/96 points

Brand Story

Tongue Dancer Wines is the creation of James and Kerry MacPhail. If you are a California Pinot Noir lover, you likely know James' previous work with MacPhail Family Wines. James knows how to make amazing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and James knows a lot of people who grow spectacular Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We have been reviewing the wines from Tongue Dancer for the better part of a decade and have never seen a Tongue Dancer Wine fail to earn Four-Stars or better. Tongue Dancer constantly innovates, releasing new wines yearly while never missing a beat. Once, they surprised us by releasing a great, dry cider! This is a winery to watch. The wines are always in short supply, so be swift. Visit their website and join their mailing list to get direct access to their wines.