2016 Michael Pozzan Winery Pinot Noir Russian River 750 ml

Fulfilling a Russian River Pinot Dream

Price is just one of the reasons the 2016 Michael Pozzan Pinot Noir is such a revelation. With neighbors like top Pinot producers Kosta Browne, Littorai, and Williams-Selyem, whose crimson Pinots sell for over $100 per bottle, Pozzan’s 2016 is a smoking deal from one of America’s top appellations.

From the start, even when his eponymous winery was staffed full-time by just he and his wife MaryAnn, the goal was simple: To express the best of the incredible terroir of California at a price that makes it accessible for all wine lovers to share his passion.

As a result, Pozzan’s wines have become fixtures on the lists of such internationally respected chefs as Michael Symon and Masaharu Morimoto. No wonder: Their almost preternatural ability to deliver the classic calling cards of Russian River Valley at a price that makes them available to everyone is unmatched.

Pozzan’s signature 2016 Pinot Noir delivers classic Russian River Valley elegance alongside a deep core of fruit at one-fifth the price, and with all the complexity of its more expensive neighbors. It lifts from the glass with violets, plums, and fresh-picked raspberries, and glides across the tongue with the sort of elegance more associated with Chambolle-Musigny than anything else. This is 100% Pinot, entirely from Russian River Valley, and the 18 months it’s spent in French oak have softened up its edges while still allowing the impeccable terroir of its origins to shimmer through.

Now, decades after his initial release, Pozzan grows grapes in Calistoga and crafts wines from top growers throughout the state. Under the watchful eye of consulting winemaker Molly Lyman, who has worked alongside such luminaries as Philipe Melka, Heidi Barrett, and others, and at estates like Duckhorn, Paradigm, Moone-Tsai, and more, these wines have achieved the renown that Michael always hoped they would…though now, with his entire family playing their part in the business.

Years ago, when Pozzan first looked out over the vineyards of this legendary appellation, he dreamed of crafting a wine that would convey all of the mysterious magic enshrouded in the Russian River Valley’s signature fog. He accomplished that and then some with his 2016, and at a price that no one, least of all him, thought possible.