31 Jul Please The Palate Wine of the Week: LaRue Wines 2013 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

Typically we drink the current vintages a winery has to offer. To enjoy a wine with age on it, we have to put it in our wine refrigerator or cellar or wherever we store wine, and wait a few years. But LaRue Wines in Sonoma, California likes to hold onto older vintages and then share the wines with guests when they visit. While the current vintage of LaRue Wines Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast is the 2016 and is available for $60, the 2013 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast is also available and is the Please The Palate Wine of the Week.

Katy Wilson began LaRue Wines, named after her great-grandmother Veona LaRue, in 2009, after working at Kamen Wines and Flowers Winery. With the vision of making complex and vibrant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Katy sources fruit from Sebastopol to Bodega Bay. All of the vineyards are seven to ten miles from the coast and benefit from the cool Pacific Ocean air.

The LaRue Wines 2013 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast is a blend of fruit from the Rice-Spivak Vineyard, a six-acre vineyard south of Sebastopol, and the Emmaline Ann Vineyards, a three-acre vineyard on the western edge of Sebastopol. The wine was aged for 20 months in 100% French oak, 30% of which were new. Only 235 cases were made of this wine, which is only 12.9% alcohol. Katy held back 10 cases which are being released now.

The wine has classic Pinot Noir aromas of raspberry, cherry, leather and spice. Even with seven years of age, the wine is bright and juicy with smooth tannins and soft acidity. What makes the LaRue Wines 2013 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast so tasty and the Please The Palate Wine of the Week is that with the years of age, the wine is balanced and integrated on the palate and at its sweet spot to drink.

The LaRue Wines 2013 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast ($80) is a library wine so it is only available to wine club members or if you visit. To learn more about LaRue Wines and taste current and library wines, contact Katy Wilson at www.LaRueWines.com.