2013 Head High Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 750 ml

2013 Head High Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast: Pommard Clone at Durrell Vineyard

Pinot Noir aficionados have been anxiously awaiting the inaugural release of Sam Spencer’s 2013 Head High Sonoma Coast since the winery was founded by Bill Price in 2014. Today, Spencer is “letting WineAccess go first.” This is a MUST-read and a MUST-buy. Strict LIMIT of one case per member!

Bill Price is one of the founding members of the private equity colossus, the publicly traded Texas Pacific Group. But in collector circles, it’s Price’s passion for fine wine — the vineyards from which they’re drawn, and the craftsmen who make them — that most distinguishes him.

In the 1980s, Price was recruited by Bain and Company, where he quickly climbed the ranks and became co-head of the firm’s financial services practice. In 1992, two former Bain clients were working on a plan to acquire Continental Airlines out of bankruptcy. Price jumped in and the Texas Pacific Group was born. He’s never looked back.

Unlike so many of the uber-wealthy who drop fortunes on vineyard land in Northern California, Price likes to keep a low profile, letting his winemakers and their wines do all the talking. There is no William Price Winery. Nor is there a Bill Price Vineyard. Instead, quietly but persistently, Price has laid claim to some of the most extraordinary Pinot Noir Vineyards on the coast — Durrell and Gap’s Crown — and has then formed partnerships with the likes of Kosta Browne, Gavin Chanin in Santa Barbara County, and recently, the brilliant Sam Spencer at one of the most ambitious new Pinot Noir projects on the Sonoma Coast, Head High.

When you sit with Sam and sip and swirl the 2013 Head High Pinot Noir, it’s easy to understand why the most celebrated vineyard developer in Sonoma Valley placed a large bet on Spencer. Like Price, Spencer plays his cards close to the vest, deflecting attention away from himself when explaining what went into the making of his critically acclaimed inaugural release.

“Everyone likes to sing the winemaker’s praises. But anyone who’s spent a couple decades tinkering with Pinot Noir will tell you all the great Pinot Noirs — Roumier, Méo-Camuzet, DRC, Kistler, and Kosta Browne — are grown, not made. I was lucky in 2013. First, it was a spectacular growing season, one of the most extraordinary of the last 20 years. Second, I focused my purchases on the Pommard Clone. Last, of course, when it came to hand-selecting the rows at Durrell Vineyard for Head High, I had an ace up my sleeve.”

While the more widely planted Dijon Clones are known for their dark color and floral aromatics, the Pommard Clone gives birth to highly structured Pinot Noirs of great density, chewy texture, and aromatic intensity. Working with small-berry bunches off of Sangiacomo Family, Durell, and Wildcat Canyon vineyards, Spencer treated clusters to a 4-day cold soak, leaching out brilliant ruby color, fine tannins, and Pommard Clone muscle. Each vineyard block was vinified separately in French oak cooperage, 25% of which was new François Frères and Remond. Despite the extraordinarily high sugars of the vintage, alcohol finished at a fairly tame 14.2%, with pH coming in at a refreshing 3.65!

Vivid ruby. Lavish aromas of wild strawberry, black raspberry, and black cherry, touched with new-wood cedar. Rich, juicy, and terrifically flashy on the attack, dense and chewy in texture, filled with a luscious mix of crushed red- and black-fruit preserves, finishing with excellent persistence and vibrancy — speaking eloquently of the vineyards from which this phenomenal first release from Sam Spencer was drawn and the structural integrity of the Pommard Clone. Drink now-2020.

A drop-dead bargain at $35/bottle directly from the winery. A MUST-BUY today on WineAccess at $25. Shipping included on 4. Strict LIMIT of one case per member.