Bien Nacido Estate The Captain Pinot Noir 2014
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Pinot Noir The Captain wafts from the glass with complex aromas of wood smoke, wild berries and savory forest floor. On the palate, it's medium-bodied, cool and racy, with a crunchy core of fruit, fine-grained structuring tannins and lots of sappy energy, concluding with a penetrating finish. Like the 2015 rendition, this will need some time to really open up, but it's a beautiful wine from Bien Nacido's highest-altitute, most windswept plantings.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A new cuvée (for me anyways), the 2014 Pinot Noir Bien Nacido The Captain was the standard winemaking and saw 30% whole clusters, native ferments and 18 months in 40% new French oak. It sports a deeper ruby color as well as terrific red and black fruits, leady herbs, underbrush and leather. It's another concentrated, rich and nicely structured effort that has plenty of ripe tannin, solid mid-palate depth and a good finish. Like the other wines here, it's going to keep for a decade, and I suspect will be one of the longer-lived wines in the vintage.
Other Vintages
2016-
Jeb
Dunnuck
In 1969, brothers Bob & Steve Miller, the fourth generation of a Central Coast California farming family, found a piece of land they instantly knew had vineyard potential. Formerly used for grazing, it was part of one of the earliest Spanish land grants. However, the shale soil and unique climate from the transverse mountain range provided a lens into its potential.
The vineyard was planted in 1973. Bob and Steve called it Bien Nacido, meaning “well born” in Spanish, because of the passion and commitment they shared in bringing it to life.
All the wines are naturally fermented, with no sulfur additions until after malolactic has completed. The wines are never filtered or fined, and only the selections which represent the best expressions make it into the bottles.
The original adobe on the property remains as one of the few privately maintained adobes in California.