Tongue Dancer Wines Foxtrot Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2021

The Data

Country USA

Appellation Russian River Valley

Varietal Pinot Noir

Retail Price $40

ABV 14.2%

Score 5 Stars/98 points

In the Glass

Appearance

Brilliant, deep ruby color.

Aromatics

The aromatics are pleasingly intense, offering scents of red cherry and wild berries with supporting notes of slate, dried herbs, black tea, and forest floor.

Flavor

The palate echoes the nose delivering a red and black fruits-driven core with flavors of raspberry, black fruits, earth, and truffle. The finish is long and lingering with supple tannins.

Intensity & Texture

Medium to full-bodied and perfectly balanced with an opulent texture.

Cool Factor

Sometimes more is more — especially when it's a new Tongue Dancer Wines Pinot Noir. We absolutely love this second edition of Foxtrot.

Value Grade

B+

Have you heard that Pinot Noir is expensive? Sure you have. Tongue Dancer Wines has made an exceptional Pinot for $40! Get it quick as it's exceptionally rare (fewer than 100 cases made).

Analysis

This is the second vintage of Tongue Dancer Wines’ (TDW) Foxtrot. They describe it as a fun-to-drink dance of a wine and we agree. Albeit the second installment of Foxtrot it’s a first in many respects as last year’s inaugural Foxtrot was sourced from the Anderson Valley while this year’s wine hails from Lakeview Vineyard located in the Green Valley area of Russian River Valley. Jim MacPhail has been working with fruit from this vineyard since 2007 and now it has found its way into a TDW bottle. While we were initially concerned by the change of fruit source we quickly learned that this vintage did not miss a step. The grapes were hand-picked on the morning of August 28 and gently de-stemmed — not crushed. Thrice daily punchdowns and could fermenting temperatures insured depth and a fruit-forward wine. The wine spent 11 months on the lies in French oak — 33% new oak. It was bottled unfined and lightly filtered in August of 2022. The resulting wine is truly exceptional.

How to Enjoy

This wine really needs nothing but a glass but it is extremely food friendly and will flourish with anything from the grill.