Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.

This past week included some really excellent wines from a few top producers.

Let’s start with some whites from Ernest Vineyards, a winery I wrote a bit about last week, and have been following for years. Here are a few more of their white wines all of which are excellent, but in particular their Joyce Vineyard Chardonnays have a wonderful pithiness and that hint of salinity that marks truly gulpable white wine.

MacRostie Winery has been devoted to cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for decades, and this week they sent along a very interesting pair of wines—Pinot Noirs from the same vineyard (in the Petaluma Gap AVA) but separate clonal bottlings, one with the Calera clone and the other with the Swan clone. They are both excellent, though I think I ever-so-slightly preferred the flavor profile of the Calera clone.

Next I’ve got four blockbuster Pinot Noirs from Racines Wines, the collaboration between Étienne de Montille and Brian Sieve of Burgundy and Rodolphe Péters of Champagne. These nervy, ethereal, graceful Pinots from the Santa Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara are all outstanding, but the Rinconada Vineyard bottling in particular won my heart. These wines aren’t cheap, but if you’re in the market for top-tier California Pinot, you can’t go wrong with these.

Lastly I’ve got two more wines to share with you from the venerable Australian producer Yalumba, in the Barossa Valley. Their Tricentenary – Ancestor Vine Grenache is made from vines planted in 1889 and offers the wonderful combination of fruity and savory notes that old vine Grenache can sometimes have. The Caley on the other hand is a flagship (read: pricey) blend of Cabernet Sauvignon from the winery’s Coonawarra vineyards, and Shiraz from the winery’s Barossa vineyards. Kind of like blending fruit from Napa and Sonoma, this wine has a nice mix of ripeness and freshness.

That’s all for this week. Notes on all the wines follow below.

Tasting Notes

2021 Ernest Vineyards “Joyce Vineyard” Chardonnay, West Sonoma Coast, California
Palest greenish gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon pith, wet chalkboard, and a hint of resin. Wonderfully chalky and bright flavors of lemon peel and lemon pith mix with green apple skin and a hint of salinity. Clean and bright. Spends 18 months in around 38% new oak. 11.5% alcohol. 200 cases made. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $85. click to buy.

2022 Ernest Vineyards “Joyce Vineyard” Chardonnay, West Sonoma Coast, California
Palest greenish gold in the glass, this wine smells of flinty lemon pith and lemon oil. Bright saline flavors of lemon pith and lemon peel mix with wet chalkboard and a hint of green apple skin. Chalky, lean, and bright with excellent acidity. Spends 18 months in around 38% new oak. 12.6% alcohol. 110 cases made. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $85. click to buy.

2021 Ernest Vineyards “Alder Springs Vineyard” Chardonnay, Mendocino County, California
Palest greenish gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon curd and lemon oil. Lemon curd and a hint of orange oil mix with struck match, pastry cream, and a nice herbal kick in the finish. Lightly chalky texture, very good acidity. 13% alcohol. 200 cases made. Score: around 9. Cost: $65.

2022 Ernest Vineyards “Alder Springs Vineyard” Petite Arvine, Mendocino County, California
Palest greenish gold in color, this wine smells of chopped green herbs, finger lime, and lemon cucumber. Salty finger lime and greengage plum mix with cilantro and other green herbs. Bright acidity and nice chalky underbelly. A fun and intriguing wine. 13.2% alcohol. 130 cases made. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $42. click to buy.

2022 MacRostie Winery “Nightwing Vineyard – Calera Clone” Pinot Noir, Petaluma Gap, Sonoma, California
Medium garnet in the glass with purple highlights, this wine smells of cranberry and pomegranate with hints of raspberry and raspberry leaf. Herbal notes of raspberry and raspberry leaf mix with cranberry and pine duff as gauzy tannins coat the mouth. Excellent acidity keeps things fresh, as the more savory, herbal fruit lingers in the finish. 14.2% alcohol. Closed with a screwcap. 75 cases made. Score: around 9. Cost: $. click to buy.

2022 MacRostie Winery “Nightwing Vineyard – Swan Clone” Pinot Noir, Petaluma Gap, Sonoma, California
Medium to dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cherries and cranberries. Bright cherry and cranberry fruit has a juicy bounce thanks to excellent acidity. Light, gauzy tannins hang in the background as lush fruit has an aromatic sweetness on the palate. The sweetness of new oak appears in the finish. Bright, ripe, and polished. 14.4% alcohol. Closed with a screwcap. 50 cases made. Score: around 9. Cost: $. click to buy.

2022 Racines Wine “Sanford & Benedict Vineyard” Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, California
Light to medium garnet in color, this wine smells of raspberry, cherry, and a hint of dashi. Raspberry fruit is shot through with a faintly saline umami quality as powdery, chalk-dust tannins coat the mouth. Excellent acidity, with notes of orange peel, marijuana resin, and a hint of oak in the finish. 13.2% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $110. click to buy.

2022 Racines Wine “Sta. Rita Hills Cuvée” Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, California
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of struck match, raspberry pastilles, and redcurrants. Raspberry and redcurrant flavors have a faint herbal resinous tang to them as wispy gauzy tannins hang in the background to let the juicy berry and citrus peel brightness take the stage with hints of wet earth and toasted oak. Excellent acidity and balance. A blend of fruit from various vineyard sites in the Sta. Rita Hills. 13% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $60. click to buy.

2022 Racines Wine “Sainte Rose” Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, California
Light to medium garnet in color, this wine smells of raspberries, raspberry leaf, and dried flowers. Wonderfully bright redcurrant and raspberry flavors are wrapped in a gauzy haze of tannins as notes of dried herbs and a touch of citrus peel linger in the finish. Excellent acidity and length, with a lovely stony minerality underneath it all. A barrel selection from the single-vineyard lots produced by the winery. Fermented 50% whole cluster with ambient yeasts and aged for 18 months in 25% new French oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 13% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $65. click to buy.

2022 Racines Wine “La Rinconada Vineyard” Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, California
Light to medium garnet in color, this wine smells of candied raspberries and fresh flowers. Brilliant, crystalline flavors of candied raspberries have a lovely quartz-like minerality with powdery, wispy tannins that coat the mouth as the stony berry notes linger through the finish. Fantastic acidity and balance. 13.2% alcohol. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $100. click to buy.

2022 Yalumba “The Tri-Centenary – Ancestor Vine” Grenache, Barossa, South Australia, Australia
Light to medium ruby in the glass, this wine smells of strawberry jam and dried herbs. Silky textured flavors of strawberry, dashi, dried herbs, and a touch of earth have a smooth softness, with delicate acidity. I’d like a little more brightness here, but the flavors are compelling. There’s a tiny bit of heat in the finish. Made from 2 acres filled with 820 vines planted in 1889. Spent 372 days in extended maceration, with juice in contact with the skins. 14% alcohol. 4212 bottles made. Closed with a screwcap. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $63. click to buy.

2019 Yalumba “The Caley” Cabernet-Shiraz, Australia
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of faintly smoky cherry and blackberry. Blackberry, cherry, cedar, and pine duff flavors are wrapped in a thick, fleecy blanket of tannins. Hints of licorice and raisins linger in the finish. Rich but not sweet, and with enough acidity to keep things fresh. A hint of chopped herbs lingers in the finish. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra and Shiraz from the Barossa. 14% alcohol. Comes in an overly heavy bottle, weighing 1.52 kg when full. Score: around 9. Cost: $360. click to buy.