2024 Angeline Pinot Noir Reserve Sonoma County 750 ml

There's a question that comes up whenever serious wine people find themselves talking about value: what's the best Pinot Noir you can buy for under twenty bucks? For years, Courtney Benham has had a ready answer—and it's his own wine.

Benham grew up in the wine business, launched Martin Ray Winery in Sonoma in the late 1990s, and built Angeline as the label dedicated to delivering outsized quality at prices that don't require a second thought. Over time, Angeline has become one of the best-selling Pinot brands we've ever put in front of our members—not because we pushed it, but because people tried it, loved it, and kept coming back.

The 2024 Sonoma County Reserve is sourced primarily from the Russian River Valley, with additional fruit from Green Valley and Carneros. These are three of the coolest, most fog-kissed growing pockets in all of Sonoma—the kind of microclimates that give Pinot Noir the slow, even ripening it needs to develop genuine complexity. The 2024 vintage cooperated fully: a cool, wet winter recharged the soils, and a long, measured summer allowed the fruit to ripen on its own schedule.

The winemaking team is led by Keith Emerson, who built his reputation—and his 100-point credentials—at Vineyard 29 in Napa, working alongside Leslie Renaud, who came up at Talley Vineyards in Arroyo Grande. Together, they treat this wine with the same seriousness they'd apply to something costing four times as much.

In the cellar, each vineyard lot was harvested and fermented separately, preserving the distinct character of each site. After destemming, the fruit went through a four-day cold soak, followed by native fermentation in open-top tanks. Nine months in 30% new French oak adds structure and a whisper of toastiness—enough to give the wine presence, not enough to get in the way.

The result is everything Sonoma Pinot Noir does best. The nose opens with red cherry, wild strawberry, rose petal, and a hint of forest floor. On the palate, the fruit is vivid and precise, carried by polished tannins and the kind of bright acidity that keeps the wine energetic from first pour to last.