2019 Martin Ray Vineyards and Winery Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 750 ml

The 2019 Martin Ray Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir took the Wine Access tasting table by storm. Bold, luscious, and boasting the kind of excellence that’s rare in Pinots at this price, it’s a major contender for our go-to case-buy Pinot Noir of the year.

Vibrant ruby-violet in hue, it’s got dark-raspberry and red-cherry notes intermingling with hibiscus and wildflowers on the nose. Clean, elegant, and light on its feet, it’s delicious and way too easy to drink: Just ask our Master Sommelier Sur Lucero, who gulped down an entire glass just while writing the tasting note.

The seeming effortlessness of balance in the glass is, of course, the result of intensive labor in the vineyard. That was the spirit in which Martin Ray—a pioneer of California viticulture—founded his winery in the 1940s, and it continues today. Ray wanted to craft Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to rival the best of Europe when most would have found that notion laughable.

He cut yields and refused to irrigate in the vineyard, and was even stricter in the cellar, sometimes holding wines back a decade until he felt they were ready to go to market. That dedication to quality landed Martin Ray wines in the White House under both the Johnson and Nixon administrations, and started a legacy that continues with 94-point gems like this one.

Leveraging long-term relationships with growers, the winery gets access to some of the best fruit in Sonoma, then transmutes it into a textbook Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that you’d expect to cost twice the price. All balance and elegance, this 2019 will wow you like it did us.