2016 imagine SANTA LUCIA HIGHLANDS / MONTEREY COUNTY PINOT NOIR

WINE NOTES

NAME:

imagine

VARIETAL:

Pinot Noir

APPELLATION:

Santa Lucia Highlands / Monterey County

VINTAGE:

2016

This is our first members-only red wine, and it doesn’t get any better than this. Grown in the small and very prestigious region of the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County, California, where each morning the rays of sunshine peek through a waning marine layer. This cool climate is home to arguably some of the greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the world. Notice the engaging light ruby color as you pour it into your glass... very indicative of this area. Beauty in motion. There is a slight cloudiness which comes from being unfiltered during winemaking. You’ll understand when you taste. The aromas are bright red fruits like ripe cherry, a bit of vanilla that gives it great texture and a really nice hint of tobacco leaf, probably coming from its maturity. The taste is, “Oh my.” Notice the great texture in your mouth. Taste the creamy vanilla bean along with the strawberry and raspberry as they present themselves first and foremost. Next, notice the unfiltered textural depth, along with the slight tobacco leaf, which leads you to the place we cork-dorks call complexity. Finally, after your first sip, you’ll taste the subtle oak lingering about and not wanting to go home just yet. Great finish. This is what you look for in a fine Pinot Noir… elegance, engaging red fruit, subtle earthiness, lingering oak and WOW! Your wine, this wine, is one of the few from this heralded region that take it to another level with complexity and pure winemaking genius. Mic down!

Cheers - Eric

ARTWORK & DESIGN

Label Design By Mindi Abair

Over the past few years I’ve fallen in love with Pinot Noir, for its beauty and complexity, but mostly for its pure wonderment. I’ve learned that it is the very grape that makes some of the world’s greatest wines all because of its potential to transform and change, not only from sip to sip, but day to day, and year to year. The idea of evolution and renewal speaks to me. This is truly an artists’ wine given its ability to always intrigue, transform and keep me imagining what comes next. And this is why I loved this wine from the moment I tasted it. The style of this Pinot Noir reminded me of how a music artist’s mind, like the winemaker, has to work. When I write something new and nurture it from the inception of a song to the final recording, I continuously imagine how it will develop and change. Note by note and day by day, it inevitably becomes something more than I originally intended it to be. I created this design to represent the curiosity and creativity that are required to go into crafting a great song… a sweeping brush stroke depicting an ongoing flow of possibility and imagination.

- Mindi

MUSIC

The songs on this playlist all represent the notion of possibility, change and sometimes the ideal of making the world a better place. They are all thought provoking and emotionally engaging... a perfect pairing for this Pinot Noir.

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